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Mexico 
From Diaz to the Kaiser 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

THIRTEEN YEARS OF A BUSY WOMAN'S LIFE 

AMERICA AS I SAW IT 

MEXICO AS I SAW IT (Now in a Shilling Edition 
(Translated into Oernian) 

THROUGH FINLAND IN CARTS (Now in a Shillin 
Edition) (Translated into Sxvedish) 

A GIRL'S 'RIDE IN ICELAND (Now in a Shilling Ed. 

HYDE PARK: Its History and Romance 

PORFIRIO DIAZ: The Maker of Modern Mexico 
(Translated into German and Spanish) 

A WINTER JAUNT TO NORWAY 

GEORGE HARLEY, F.R.S. : or, The Life of a London 
Physician (Out of Print) 

WILTON. Q.C. : or. Life in a Highland Shooting Box 
(Out of Print) 

DANISH VERSUS ENGLISH BUTTER-MAKING 

THE OBER-AMMERGAU PASSION PLAY (Out o 

Print) 
SUNNY SICILY 
BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS 
BUSY DAYS: A Birthday Book 
MY TABLECLOTHS 
WOMEN THE WORLD OVER 




Photo by The Author.] 

Man and gourd, with which he extracts pul(jue (the drink of the 
Country) from the niague plant. 




GKNiiRAi. IViRijRio Diaz 
Eia;ht times President of Mexico, 



Frontispiece. 



MEXICO 

From Diaz to the Kaiser 

S3? Mrs. A lee- Tweedie, jiuthor 0/ "Por/mo 

^iaz. Seven Times President of Mexico," "Mexico as I Saw 
It," "America as I Saw It," "Women the World Over," "The 
Preface to Prescott's History of Mexico " (Oxford University 
Press), etc. 



WITH 36 ILLUSTRATIONS 




GEORGE H. TtORAN COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



r 






PREFACE 

The object and aim of this book is to try 
and disentangle the knotted Mexican skein 
of the last ten years, and to show the 
present political, commercial, and financial 
position of Mexico with its future possibilities. 
Mexico is daily entering the world-map of 
progression, and is destined to play an im- 
portant part. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. PAGK 

I. — Before the Downfall : General Sketch 1 

II. — Developments and Madero ... 20 

III. — Revolutionary Rumblings . . .42 

IV.— Crisis 61 

V. — Flight of Diaz ..... 79 

VI. — ^Madero and Earthquakes ... 96 

VII. — Diaz In Retirement. .... 119 

VIII. — Downfall of Madero .... 134 

IX. — HuERTA seizes Power . . . .147 

X. — Englishman murdered and American 

Flag dishonoured .... 163 

XI. — A Sailor's Narrative .... 185 

XII. — Huerta — Carranza — Villa . . . 195 

XIII. — Death of Diaz — The Future of Mexico . 217 

XIV. — How the German Plot was worked . 238 

XV. — A Mysterious Visitor .... 253 

XVI.— A Peep ahead 267 

XVII.— The Kaiser in Mexico . . . .284 
Index 807 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



General Porfirio Diaz 

Man and Gourd {back of Frontispiece 

The National Palace 

A Shrine .... 

The Beast of Burden 

Benito Juarez 

The Gathedral, Mexico City 

Rurales ..... 

Native Police .... 

Madame Diaz .... 

The President's Private House, Mexico City 

A Village Church 

The Road to Chapultepec 

General Reyes 

Pottery for sale 

An Ancient Well 

A Modern Mexican Fountain 

Church of " San Hipolito," damaged by 

Bombardment 
A Bit of Mexico City 
Madero and his Followers 
President Madero with his Guard 
The British Legation, Mexico City 
Effect of Bombardment on an old Church 
Farewell to Mexico 
Diaz' Last Steps in Mexico 
A Village Scene 
Indian Statue, Mexico City 
The Author riding astride in Mexico 



Frontispiece 


Facing p. ii 




2 




3 




, 10 




11 




, 14 




, 15 




, 15 




16 




, 17 




, 24 




, 25 




, 34 




, 35 




44 




, 45 




, 50 




, 51 




, 52 




, 53 




, 68 




, 69 




, 86 




, 87 




, 100 




, 101 




, 128 



viu 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Little Chapel built over the spot where Maxi- 

millian was shot 
Chapultepec Castle . 
Street Scene showing Bombardment 
A Corner of Bucareli 
Two Belgian Notes . 
Paseo de la Reforma 



Facing p. 128 
129 
188 
189 
238 
269 



Chart 



What the Kaiser wants 



804 



MEXICO 

FROM DIAZ TO THE KAISER 

CHAPTER I 

BEFORE THE DOWNFALL — GENERAL SKETCH 

NO country has made history more rapidly or 
more dramatically than Mexico since 1910. 
So strange and so varied are the facts that 
they read almost like a fairy tale. 

The fall of Mexico hit the world. Mexico was a 
land of chaos till Diaz came — Mexico returned to 
chaos when Diaz left. 

The country had been so prosperous, one of the 
most prosperous lands on the earth, for so long under 
his sway, that millions of foreign capital were locked 
up in its securities. Year by year a state of stability 
had been built up, good honest solid return on capital, 
so that every nation had money safely invested in 
Mexico under Diaz. — 

Who could have foreseen that the revolutionary 
spirit, which four or five years later was to overthrow 
China and Russia without bloodshed, would whirl 
Mexico into a field of gore ? 

I 



2 MEXICO 

Life is a jumble of possibilities, probabilities and 
impossibilities. 

Man may accept the first, overcome the second, 
and scorn the third. According to his grit he makes 
his own success, according to his steadfastness of 
purpose he impresses those about him, and according 
to his ethics and ideals, he builds up his own future 
and that of those dependent on him. 

Life cannot remain in the present. It is always 
hurrying on, or stopping through death. To stand 
still is to be passed by others on the moving- stairway 
of existence. 

Having written the authentic life of that great ruler. 
General Porfirio Diaz, in 1906, it seems fitting that the 
story of that beautiful, romantic land of natural wealth 
and varied climate should be continued from the close 
of the former volume,* that is from Diaz' seventh 
election to the Presidency on December 1st, 1904, up 
to August, 1917. 

The downfall of Diaz was the greatest calamity 
Mexico has ever known. 

But, in our present lightning days, each and all of 
them rushing past aflame with historical incidents, let 
us glance for a moment at the events of Diaz' earlier 
times. 

How great was Don Porfirio — born on Sep- 
tember 15th, 1830, of humble parents, and having an 
Indian grandmother — people on the western side of 
the Atlantic have but a scant idea. Not only was he 

* " Porfirio Diaz, seven times President of Mexico" (published 1906). 




Plio'.o by Cox.] 



A shiine, showing moss and creepers on the trees. 



[To face p. 3. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 



a man of the strongest character and will, but in every 
sense a gentleman. He refused, to his mother's grief, 
to enter the Church, being bitten at an early age with 
military ambition ; and so it was that his whole life 
became a story of romance and adventure, until at 
last he reigned over Mexico with all the power of a 
King, a Pope and a Tsar. The poor little half-Indian 
lad became a supreme ruler, and brought his country 
to a high pitch of success and wealth. 

Both Diaz and Benito Juarez, the two makers of 
the modern State, were natives of the almost tropical 
Oaxaca Valley, about two hundred and thirty miles 
south-east of Mexico City. The latter, but for whose 
spade-work Diaz could not have attained so much, 
was a strong Liberal and an intense hater of Clericalism. 
Diaz fought for Juarez' Laws of Reform against the 
Catholic Church, and also helped to make him President 
of Mexico. Jucirez established his Government, over- 
threw the Church, and received recognition by the 
United States in 1859. These two strong men, though 
they quarrelled eventually, were for the greater part 
of their lives warm personal friends ; and to these 
two personalities Mexico owes her strength to-day. 

But if this remarkable pair were the makers of 
modern Mexico, the first decisive stroke for freedom 
from the Spanish yoke had been dealt long before — to 
wit by the patriot-priest Miguel Hidalgo in 1810. To 
this day the anniversary of that blow is commemorated 
by the President ringing the Bell of Independence from 
the balcony of the National Palace in the capital. 



4 MEXICO 

Porfirio Diaz was, to begin with, a lawyer, and the 
first vital step of his life was his joining the revolt for 
reform against the Dictator, General Santa Anna, in 
1853. Thus, at the age of twenty-three, began one 
of the most notable varied careers on record. One 
of the first adventures of this born leader of men was 
his communication with his former teacher, Perez, 
who was imprisoned in a turret of the Convent of 
Santo Domingo in Oaxaca. To get into touch with 
Perez, Porfirio and liis brother Felix clambered to a 
neighbouring roof. With a rope round his body, 
Porfirio slid down fifteen feet of wall to the prison 
window, and, dangling in . the air, talked with Perez. 
The prisoner's guard, consisting of fifty men under a 
captain, would have shot him on sight — but on 
three successive nights he accomplished this daring 
feat. 

For years the fighting between Juarez and the 
Reactionaries continued. Diaz — always in the thick 
of it, building up a rapid reputation for combined 
dash and cool-headedness — obtained his colonelcy at 
thirty by defeating the Reactionary leader, Cobos, at 
Oaxaca in 1860. He was repeatedly wounded, and for 
a year and eight months carried a bullet in his body. 
Success strengthened ambition : he set himself firmly 
to oust revolution from the land. His victory over 
General Marquez at Jalatlaco (August 13th, 1861) 
was rewarded by a brigadier-generalship. By the end 
of the War of Reform he was a full General. 

Then came the French hopeless invasion, with their 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 



setting up of the unhappy Austrian " puppet- 
Emperor " and dreamer Maximilian^ whose attempt 
to rule Mexico ended in his tragic execution at 
Queretaro (1867). 

Diaz and Maximilian never met. 

All through the French occupation Diaz' life was one 
round of hairbreadth escapes, desperate fighting and 
imprisonments. At the great defeat ot the French at 
Puebla, May 5th, 1862, one of the proudest of Mexican 
anniversaries, Diaz was second in command. During 
the French siege of Puebla (called the " City of the 
Angels ") in the following year he covered himself with 
distinction, especially in the most bloody fighting of 
all — that which attended the attack and defence of 
the Convent of Santa Ines. The French assaulting 
column, emerging from a dwelling known as the Meson 
de la Reja, stormed with desperate valour. Beaten 
back again and again, they yet again came on with 
cheers. The not less desperate Mexican defence slowly 
weakened, until at last there remained as their sole 
holding-point the roofs of some low rooms above 
the boiling street fight — and these exposed to direct 
fire. The position cried for forlorn hope methods. 
Diaz, collecting a few volunteers, dashed across the 
roofs and brought to bear a murderous fire upon the 
storming column. It shook, wavered, fell back, 
littering the street with hundreds of corpses, and 
leaving seven officers and a hundred and thirty men in 
the hands of the defenders. That night brought, by 
mutual consent, an armistice of two hours for the 



6 MEXICO 



removal of the dead and wounded from the sun- 
scorched streets and ruins. Puebla was only sur- 
rendered by General Ortega after a most gallant 
defence, on May 17th, 1863, from shortage of provisions. 

Diaz, on the night before General Ortega and his 
staff were to be escorted to Vera Cruz as prisoners, 
made another of his marvellous escapes. 

Contriving somehow to exchange his uniform for a 
universally worn red blanket, he slipped away. He 
had to face the officer on guard, Captain Galland, but 
calmly saluted him without rousing his suspicion, and 
so gained the street in safety. His escape was soon 
discovered, but, luckily, a friend managed to give 
him temporary harbourage ; and later, with much 
wit and courage, he and another officer. General 
Berriozdbal, were smuggled out of the town. After 
wandering all night among the mountains, they found 
themselves back in Puebla, with the French reveill6 
ringing in their ears. Slipping off again, they were 
discovered and pursued, but, after more thrilling 
adventures, succeeded in getting into Mexico City. 

In '65 Diaz once more found himself a prisoner, 
this time at the Convent de la Campaiiia — and yet 
again achieved one of his astonishing coups. General 
Count Thun, entering the prison, had the cells closely 
shuttered, and the guards doubled, and ordered the 
prisoners to be visited every hour day and night. 

This time, presumably, even the audacious Diaz 
should have been nonplussed — but he was not. By 
clever planning he had contrived to have a horse, 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 



with a servant and guide, kept in hiding for him at a 
certain house. Among his prison companions were 
two old friends who, eager to serve him, proceeded to 
entangle the prison officers in a game of cards that 
prevented any tiresome promenading of the corridors. 
The coast thus temporarily cleared, Diaz rolled three 
ropes surreptitiously obtained up into a ball, put 
another rope, with a sharpened dagger, into his kit- 
bag — and waited. 

When the bell sounded for silence in the prison, 
Diaz slipped out on to an open balcony near the roofs, 
the night being moonless. He flung three of his ropes 
up on to the roof, then threw the last over a projecting 
stone gutter, scarcely visible in the feeble light. After 
testing his support, he climbed to the roof and secured 
his other ropes. The passage of the roofs, commanded 
by a sentinel, was acutely dangerous. Crawling on 
hands and knees, stopping to examine every loose 
tile, he traversed two sides of the courtyard. Sheet 
lightning played across the sky at intervals. Finding 
himself at last under the protection of a wall, he could 
rise to his feet ; but the sloping stonework was a new 
danger, and he was within an ace of falling into the 
depths below. 

To reach his proposed point of descent into the 
street of San Roque, Diaz had to pass the house of the 
chaplain, who had but lately, by denouncing them, 
secured the execution of some prisoners attempting an 
escape. Supreme caution was needful. 

Breathless, he crossed the chaplain's house just as 



8 MEXICO 



one of its inhabitants entered, fresh from the theatre. 
The man, humming a tune gaily and holding a lighted 
taper in his hand, actually moved towards the crouch- 
ing fugitive, but happily, just before it was too late, 
went back into the house. When some torturing 
minutes had passed without further threat of discovery, 
the hunted Diaz ventured on to the chaplain's roof 
and safely attained the San Roque corner. 

At this corner was a stone statue of San Vincente 
Ferrer, upon which he had coimted for securing his 
rope. The saint's figure tottered at a mere touch, yet, 
precarious or not, it was the only anchoring point 
available. Utilizing the least unsteady part, the 
pedestal, Diaz committed himself to the rope and 
dropped down the side of the house furthest from the 
main street. Alack, at the second floor his feet missed 
their grip upon the wall — he slipped down on the 
garden side and landed in a pigsty. 

It was necessary, not only to find a new hiding-place, 
but to pacify the squealing pigs before ensconcing 
himself. At length, after climbing a low wall, beneath 
which passed a watching gendarme, Diaz dropped, 
sweating and exhausted, into the street. So without 
further mishap he gained the house where horse, 
servant and guide were awaiting him. The little party 
mounted, cleverly evaded the cavalry patrol, trotted 
through the open city gate, and galloped wildly off 
into the night. 

On the morning of September 21st they reached the 
Mexico river, with the Imperial forces not far off. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 



The servant and guide, stripping their horses, went 
over in a boat ; Diaz swam the river, one hand resting 
on his horse's mane. At Coayuca, where a festival 
was going forward, the chief of poHce {jeje politico) 
recognized, but did not betray Diaz. Hardly was he 
clear of the town, when an Imperial squadron fell 
suddenly upon it. But the fugitives galloped off 
across country — and now, at long last, were free. 

These minor adventures are dwelt upon as 
emphasizing the great soldier's early amazing pluck 
and resourcefulness. 

Three days later this just-freed prisoner, compact 
as he was of energy and resolution, embarked upon a 
desperate campaign against the Imperialists — the 
French and Mexican supporters of Maximilian — 
which lasted a hundred days and involved four 
victories over the invaders. And thereafter his life 
continued to be one of brilliant soldiership — in the 
course of which the Emperor made overtures to him, 
only to find the Mexican General incorruptible — varied 
with Monte Cristo adventure. General Bazaine, the 
chief pillar of the Imperial throne, took command 
against Diaz as being the most powerful opponent the 
French had, but the latter's successful campaign went 
steadily on its way until finally Bazaine and his army 
evacuated Mexico in 1867. 

In July, that same year, Diaz married his first wife, 
Delphina Ortega y Reyes. Then, strange to say, he 
exchanged triumphant soldiership for the study, and 
some quiet years of agriculture. 



10 MEXICO 

There had been fifty-two dictators, emperors, 
presidents and rulers in fifty-nine years. 

The bad administration of the country, threatening 
a relapse into its former state, recalled him to active 
life and a new sequence of adventures. The years 
between 1867 and 1872 marked his final breach with 
Juarez. These two strong patriots were in most 
respects dissimilar, but both went in daily peril of 
their lives, and for years underwent every hardship 
and privation in the struggle for their country's 
freedom. 

On July 18th, 1871, Judrez, President of Mexico, 
died, his office falling to Lerdo de Tejada, the failure 
of whose Government soon plunged unhappy Mexico 
once more into the slough of unrest. 

The South and East were soon in a state of revolu- 
tion against Lerdo, General Hernandez, the leader of 
the rising, marching into Oaxaca on January 27th, 1876. 
Hernandez took charge of the Government of the 
State, and one of his first acts was to make Porfirio 
Diaz Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Reorganiza- 
tion. The revolution spread like wildfire through half 
a dozen other southern States. Generals Diaz and 
Gonzales, who had found a brief refuge in America, 
crossed the Bio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, 
with forty stalwarts, to take charge of the revolutionists 
in the North. 

Lerdo de Tejada, confronted by this rapid develop- 
ment of trouble, acted with decision. Diaz and his 
forty stalwarts moved southwards, his force multiplying 




Photo by Ravell. 



The beast of burden. 



\To /ace p. lo. 




Benito Juarez. 



[To face p. ii. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 11 

twenty-fold on the way. He was soon strong enough 
to attack Matamoros, a place a little above the mouth 
of the Rio Grande and the key to the north-east, held 
by a Lerdist garrison. On the anniversary of his 
storming of Puebla he assaulted and captured the 
position, taking 700 prisoners and 18 cannon. 

But Lerdo, now thoroughly alarmed, put 6,000 men, 
under Escobado, into the field against him. Diaz, 
unable to meet so large a force in open battle, scattered 
his own troops and made his way almost alone to 
New Orleans, at that time packed with exiles from 
Mexico. 

The return of Diaz to Mexico, to take supreme 
command of the Army of the Revolution, forms 
another thrilling chapter in his career of adventure. 

A little later a certain Cuban, Dr. Torres by name 
and style, embarked on the steamship City of Havanna, 
purporting to make a voyage to Vera Cruz. The ship 
stopped near Matamoros, where the pleasantness of 
the cruise was broken by an irruption of Mexican 
troops, many of them the released prisoners of Diaz, 
who, after their capture, had been unable to keep 
charge of them. These ex-prisoners were a sharp- 
eyed lot, and soon it became plain from their bearing 
that they discerned in the innocent Dr. Torres their 
former conqueror, Porfirio Diaz. Torres-Diaz was in 
a tight corner. He must get ashore in Mexico some- 
how, yet the moment he landed he would, of course, be 
found out and thrown into prison. What was to be 
done ? 



12 MEXICO 

The City of Havanna had brought up far out from 
the shore. In the distance, quays showed their 
twinkhng Hghts. Escape must be at best but a forlorn 
hope ; but Diaz, having the deck to himself for a space, 
boldly set his mind and will to the venture. 

Silently, cannily, he slipped overboard and struck 
out for the shore. 

Even the iron nerve of Diaz, which had served him 
well a hundred times over, must — alone as he was in 
these shark-haunted waters, with a severe swimming 
bout before him — have been tried as seldom before. 
There was a prospect of being chased, furthermore, and 
hardly had he made a dozen strokes when this proved 
to be imminent. A sudden turmoil on board the ship 
proclaimed the discovery of his flight. 

In haste a boat was manned and lowered. 

There remained only to make a supreme effort. The 
swimmer called upon and used the last ounce of his 
strength — in vain. Bare feet and hands stand no 
chance in a race against long-bladed oars. The boat 
gained upon, overtook him ; its crew dragged him from 
the water and quickly put him aboard the ship. There 
was no more attempt at disguise. The Lerdists, his 
lately beaten enemies, had got him — and the question 
of his being shot was a foregone conclusion. Even so, 
there was a last chance — and the shrewd brain did not 
miss it. The vessel was American : Diaz claimed pro- 
tection under the Stars and Stripes — and won it. On 
board the ship he was a free man ; but only till their 
arrival at Vera Cruz. Death was postponed — no more. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 13 

The passage, covering some days, afforded time 
enough for the nimble brain to evolve a new plan, the 
purser being induced to connive at and forward it. 
The swimming attempt had proved hopeless, but . . . 

There was an alarm on board that night. The watch 
on deck had heard a splash : a lifebuoy was found 
missing : Diaz had again disappeared. The Captain, 
after ordering a minute search for the lost passenger, 
drew up a formal report that Diaz had gone overboard. 
The presumption was confirmed a few days later by 
the discovery on the seashore of a lifebuoy marked 
S.S. Havanna. Certainly Diaz had perished. 

On the ship's arrival at Vera Cruz the Mexican 
Commandante, chagrined at the loss of so valuable a 
prize, ordered a second inspection. While the vessel 
was being rummaged from stem to stern it was guarded 
by boats full of soldiers. But the dead man failed to 
come to life again ; failed even when some Lerdist 
officers rested from their labours on a certain sofa-seat, 
which nobody thought of prizing open. 

Yet here in this box of a prison the supposed dead 
man, cared for by the purser, had been cooped up for 
several days and nights, half-stifled. The Lerdist 
officers, actually sitting upon him, solaced themselves 
with a game of cards. 

There remained the problem of getting clear of the 
ship, still closely guarded. 

Here again the devoted purser stepped in, and 
managed to get Diaz ashore disguised as a sailor. As 
usual, further adventures and evasions awaited the 



14 MEXICO 



fugitive, but eventually he turned up safe and sound 
hundreds of miles further south at his native Oaxaca. 

The Lerdists were still the stronger party, but the 
Porfiristas (Diaz party) met and defeated them in open 
battle, November 16th, at Tecoac, 3,000 prisoners 
falling to the conquerors. Diaz hereupon marched 
straight for the capital, and drew up his army of 12,000 
men at the famous shrine of Guadalupe, twelve miles 
out. 

Next day, November 23rd, 1876, he made his 
triumphal entry into the city, and rode up to the palace 
in which he was to reign so long, and from whose 
balcony he was to ring for many a year the commemo- 
rative bell of Hidalgo. 

This entry of Diaz was the more notable and striking 
in that the district was now packed with twenty or 
thirty thousand pilgrims from all parts of Mexico, 
on account of the coming anniversary fete of the 
country's patron saint, the Lady of Guadalupe. Diaz, 
the proclaimed hero, had his name mingled with the 
prayers of an adoring multitude. 

The writer has heard many thrilling descriptions from 
those who witnessed this famous passage from the 
shrine of Guadalupe into Mexico City. 

Riding in front of his Staff, in full view of the popu- 
lace, and followed by a large contingent of his troops, 
Diaz made a fine figure in his general's uniform. He sat 
his horse, erect, with head raised high — a man of forty- 
six, in the full flower of his health and strength, crowned 
with hard-won victory. 







Kurales, the only body of soldiers of the kind in the world. 




Native police. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 15 

Out from the city crowds came to meet him, greeting 
him with cheers — in some cases with hisses. He passed 
on, unmoved by the varying clamour for or against 
him. More and more friendly grew the shouts as he 
left Guadalupe, with its little wayside shrines, and 
drew towards the great square of the Zocolo. The best 
of the Mexican populace was gathered upon the Plaza 
in front of the Cathedral. By the time the cavalcade 
reached this every dissentient voice had become 
drowned in one multitudinous roar of welcome. The 
excitable Spanish-Mexican blood surged to men's 
heads : they tossed up hands and hats, frantically 
waved red rebozos (blankets). The stoical General, 
dignified and unmoved, pausing now and again to 
touch his sombrero in salute, rode calmly on to the 
Palace. Not until nightfall did the shouting die away. 

It was a strange night for Diaz, left alone with his 
thoughts. A lofty point indeed had his almost in- 
credible career touched. The self-educated son of an 
innkeeper, the rough-and-tumble fighter, ignorant of 
statecraft as he was even of the Castilian tongue, was to 
undertake the headship of a turbulent State whose 
whole past was one long memory of bloodshed and 
misrule. 



Although unassisted at the beginning by his own ad- 
herents, and despite several attempts to assassinate 
him, Diaz quickly succeeded as a ruler — and a new era 
for Mexico was opened. 



16 MEXICO 



Yet behind him lay a long line of failures : the re- 
making of a nation, already honeycombed with cor- 
ruption, was no light matter. He made up his mind to 
do or die. His success in lifting the country out of the 
slough was a miracle of achievement, and the reason 
for his triumph was patent. For the first time in 
Mexico's history, her inexpressibly troubled history, he 
brought scrupulous honesty into every corner of public 
administration. Corruption in every form went down 
before Diaz. He toiled, and restored, not only national 
credit, but internal peace. He could and did use 
stern measures. He converted bandits into rurales, 
a splendid body of military police. He created railroad 
after railroad, harbours, canals, tunnels, drains, an 
improved system of education — in a word, converted 
a hopelessly battered into a conspicuously flourishing 
State. 

To turn for a brief moment from Diaz' public to his 
more personal and intimate life. 

Despite his success, his popularity and power, the 
President — after the death of his first wife, Delphina y 
Reyes — stood absolutely alone. He confided in no 
man, planned his future life, and dreamed great dreams 
in solitude. But at the right hour Diaz met, fell 
desperately in love with, and in the spring of 1883 took 
as his second wife. Carmen de Rubio — she being a 
well-born and beautiful girl of fourteen, and he a man 
of fifty-three. Without doubt Madame Diaz, or 
Carmelita, as the Mexicans called her, was of inestimable 
help to her husband. As a woman of immense tact. 




Pliolo by N'alf.tto.j 



Ma:laint; Di iz, wife of the I'resident of Mexica. 



[Tj face p. 16. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 17 



fond of society, and mixing freely with ambassadors 
and foreigners, she learned by personal contact the 
feelings of other countries. Gradually but com- 
pletely — and always for good — she influenced his life ; 
they remained chums and friends, aye, veritable lovers, 
through their long married years till his death in 1915. 
Of high birth and liberal education, Madame Diaz 
in manner and figure somewhat resembles our Queen 
Alexandra. She is of medium height and pretty figure, 
with neat hands and feet and lovely eyes ; and in looks 
was always said to be like the beautiful, dark-eyed 
Empress Eugenie in her earlier days. 

President Diaz himself was of medium height, solidly 
built, with soldierly bearing and courtly manners. He 
had deep-set eyes, with heavy eyebrows, a bright 
complexion, and a deep, melodious voice. Although 
somewhat silent by nature, and serious by habit, he had 
a keen sense of humour and thoroughly enjoyed a joke. 

With his great neighbour, the United States, his 
relations were untroubled. Long ago, as we have seen, 
he had paid one surreptitious visit to the States. His next 
visit, years later, was another affair ; one of magni- 
ficent receptions and warm welcomes. He and his 
young wife, journeying by sea, were met at New Orleans 
by a private train, sent by courtesy of the President 
of the United States, and everywhere feted. They 
spent three days at Washington, and at Chicago had 
what Diaz described as " a beautiful reception." 



* 

2 



18 MEXICO 



When General Porfirio Diaz first came into power in 
Mexico, in November, 1876, the country was in very 
much the same troubled, condition as at Easter, 1914, 
about thirty- eight years later, when the United States 
were concentrating both their troops and fleet and 
preparing for intervention. Excitement was in the 
air, and every man's hand was raised against his fellow. 
Law and order were again unknown. 

Once more history was repeating itself. 

Revolution had succeeded revolution in '76. Guer- 
rilla, or bandit warfare, civil war, every ill that 
could befall a distracted country had been rife for half 
a century. Chaos reigned, and muddle was paramount 
in every department of the State. 

It is quite extraordinary to notice the similarity of 
those days, which seem so remote after thirty-five 
years' experience of settled government and order, and 
the days of misrule three short years after Diaz left 
the country which he had dominated so long. 

Mexico's story is really one of bloodshed, murder and 
horror of every kind, from the dark days when Cortez 
landed and carried massacre and devastation among a 
harmless and cultured people, through the centuries 
of the Spanish domination, and through all the years 
which witnessed the early struggles of the Mexican 
people to set up a stable system of self-government. 
Then with Diaz came a period of wise rule, of extra- 
ordinary strength and perception, and finally out of 
poverty and discredit national prosperity evolved. 

A new Mexico was born under Diaz. 



BEFORE THE DOWNFALL 19 



Five-and-thirty years is a generation, and everyone 
hoped that the child of prosperity would outlive the 
old age of misrule. It was not to be. Diaz wielded 
a very strong hand because Diaz knew his country. 
The outside world often blamed him for severity ; but the 
outside world did not know Mexico. Upon the down- 
fall of Diaz followed the downfall of his country, and 
over again the murderous scenes of civil war were 
enacted, there being no man strong enough to rise up 
and quell them as the lusty old General had done. 

It is better to work and drop than be idle and live. 



-v'! 



CHAPTER II 

DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 

CORTEZ landed from Spain at Vera Cruz in 1519, 
to conquer Mexico for Spain. It was a 
dangerous coast to land upon in those days. 
The United States four hundred years later anchored 
their ships at Vera Cruz in April, 1914, in one of the 
finest harbours in the world, and so brought war into 
a country that for thirty-five years General Porfirio 
Diaz had kept in peace. What could American 
soldiers do in the tropical heat, if they had to march 
to the centre of Mexico from either Tampico or Vera 
Cruz ? Both ports are tropical, and are especially 
trying in May, June and July. The first railway 
opened in Mexico runs from Vera Cruz to the capital. 
Leaving the latter at an altitude of 8,000 feet the line 
rises to 10,000 feet, before descending the mountains 
to the plains of Vera Cruz, and in the descent the 
gradients in many places are as high as 4 per cent., and 
some even higher. This part of the line has been justly 
called " a system of curves linked together." The 
coaches lie right over to get round some of the curves. 
In parts it is very like that beautiful Sati Paulo road in 
Brazil. Both lines were built by Englishmen, and 

20 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 21 



even to-day remain among the finest engineering 
feats in the world. 

Tampico is nearly 2,000 miles from New Orleans and 
on the route to Mexico Citj^ There are fifteen miles 
that are as fine as anything in the Rockies. The twists 
and curves are so great that the engine and the last 
car form a horseshoe at times. At other times six 
tracks are visible along the mountain side on which the 
train has to wind its way, and the descent is so steep 
it actually makes some people sick. 

From Tampico to Mexico City may not be as grand a 
journey as from Vera Cruz to the latter, but it is more 
lovely as it passes for a greater length through tropical 
vegetation. All along the sides of the hills, right high 
up in the thickly wooded mountains, are patches of 
bright emerald green sugar-cane. The entire produce 
is carried down the precipices in baskets on the backs 
of the Indians. Bamboos wave in the air, amid wild 
vegetation of cactus, tobacco, pepper and castor-oil 
trees. Huts of vines and palm, thatched together, 
form the homes of the people. Tampico waters are 
full of tarpon, " the king of fish ; " the coast-line is low 
and sandy. The Panuco river is half a mile wide ; the 
district is the greatest oil-producing centre in the world. 
These railways, harbours and oil-fields were practically 
all constructed under Diaz. 

The rise of Mexico out of perpetual slough and dis- 
order, and its organization as one of the most prosperous 
of Latin-American Republics, was the life work of its 
masterful President. The story of the man and of 



22 MEXICO 

Mexico is closely interwoven ; and his position was 
absolutely unique in the world's history, seeing that he 
was an all-powerful, monarchical, yet democratic con- 
stitutional ruler. 



But Diaz had been too absorbed in the building 
of his house to see that he must prepare for its future 
solidity a century ahead, as well as merely to-morrow. 
He worked long hours and hard ; but development 
grew at such a pace (not only in Mexico, but over 
the entire world) that he had not time to construct a 
future government for his own land the foundations 
of which could never be shaken. 

He trusted to improved but still inefficient education, 
and wondrous prosperity and long years of peace bearing 
unending good fruit. His attitude was one of bene- 
volent despotism, and for the time being such a form 
of rulership was a practical necessity. But he did not 
look quite far enough. Great as his gifts were, he 
was perhaps too material and prosaic. Maybe he had 
not in his composition enough of the idealist, or seer, 
which is necessary for the builder of a nation, and the 
establishment of its future stability. 

Imperceptibly and insidiously with years a group of 
men of different nationalities, as well as Mexicans, grew 
round Diaz. Each represented some scheme for the im- 
provement of the country, and so to each he listened 
in turn. They all made money. They all grew rich 
except the man himself who granted their options and 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 23 



concessions. He refused all reward : " Mexico, Mexico 
— improve Mexico," was his one cry. And so he kept 
his hands clean and expected them to do the same. 
In his younger days he would have spotted the grafters 
and turned them away ; but (peeping ahead) this 
octogenarian, as strong physically as a man half his 
age, had grown unsuspicious and confiding, and too 
trustful. The people by whom he was surrounded, 
the people he was kind to, were his undoing. 

His home life was one of the happiest on God's earth, 
and perhaps in the joys of his family circle and the 
great love of, and for, his wife he became blinded 
in later years to the realities of mischief brewing 
outside. 

The cientifico party grew in strength and he failed to 
grasp it. Things had been so immensely prosperous 
for years, he could not see the possibility of any change 
for the worse with the growth of a new century. 

As one peeps cursorily at the scene, gradually unfold- 
ing like a map — two thousand miles long by many 
hundred miles wide, temperate and tropical by turns — 
one sees fields being put under cultivation, mines being 
opened up, foreigners tumbling over one another in greed 
of gain ; thousands of miles of railway being laid, banks 
and offices opening, and a wise man controlling this vast 
and sudden enterprise, refusing concessions to un- 
desirables, while giving them to men of grit and power. 

The whole of Diaz' time was taken up with these 
developments. He became involved in a veritable 
network of difficulties, 



24 MEXICO 

Botha stamped out revolution in South Africa by the 
deportation of a handful of agitators ; but after Diaz 
(1911) left there was no one in Mexico to take a strong 
hand in the game of national chance, and everyone 
shuffled his cards to play his own hand at all hazards. 

Then across the panorama of events since 1911 men 
flashed like meteors, to disappear again. The Ambassa- 
dor to Washington — Senor de la Barra — became pro- 
visional President. Madero stood forth triumphantly 
for a few months, then four men — Villa, Carranza, 
Orozco and Huerta — took the field in kaleidoscopic 
procession. 



With his fall came the so-called American inter- 
vention. 

Had the United States the right to interfere in Mexican 
affairs ? 

That is a grave question to which there are two 
answers and many side issues. 

If the United States intended to supervise Mexican 
affairs, should they not have shown a strong hand from 
the moment General Porfirio Diaz left the country in 
May, 1911 ? 

Do the United States want to annex Mexico, as they 
have already annexed the northern States of Arizona 
and Texas ? 

If the States take Mexico, they will have a tougher 
nut to crack for years to come than we have in Egypt 
or India, 




Photo by Ravell.J 



A villatie church. 



[To face p. 24. 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 25 

Do they merely want Mexico as a sort of Egypt or not? 

Chaos, muddle, anxiety on all sides. These words 
oft reiterated describe the position of Mexico since 
General Diaz left in May, 1911. In thirty-five months 
more was undone than he had built up in that number 
of years. Thirty-five years of peace. 

Three years of devilment, before the clash of the 
European War came as a thunder-clap in the west. 

There is another serious question. 

Has the United States the right to dictate to the whole 
of Latin America ? 

Does the land from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn 
rightfully come under the United States' control ? 

Do the United States wish to annex everything, as 
they annexed Panama from Colombia, and if so, have 
they the right ? 

What about the Monroe Doctrine ? 

Anything more unlike the stern, shrewd, business- 
like, quickly calculating, well-educated people of the 
States, bent on success and dollars, than the Mexican- 
Latin-Indian — indolent and slow, ill-educated and 
unbusiness-like, full of superstition and religious fear 
— cannot well be imagined. 

The North and South Americas will never under- 
stand one another. Their blood will never mix. Race 
antagonism exists. In the North are hundreds of 
peoples with hundreds of tongues all boiling in one 
crucible — " The American." In Mexico there are a 
hundred and fifty Indian tribes with a hundred and 
fifty different languages and dialects, and representa- 



26 MEXICO 

tives of a few dozen European countries. The United 
States would find Mexico a hair-shirt, to say the least 
of it ; but happily annexation is not the only solution. 

The North and South are as unlike as oil and vinegar, 
and even a whipping will only make them mix into a 
palatable salad-dressing for a short time ; they will 
always fall asunder again. Oil and vinegar won't mix 
for long, neither will northern and southern peoples. 

The above are weighty questions, but before attempt- 
ing to answer them, let us take a general glance at the 
events that have led up to the present tangle of com- 
plexity in Mexican affairs. 

Diaz lived to a great age, only to be hurled from power 
in his eighty-first year. 

The rising which resulted in this debacle had the 
character of a national movement, the aims of which, 
perhaps, even Madero himself — its prime mover — did 
not clearly understand. One thing the nation wanted, 
apparently, was the stamping out of what the party 
considered political immorality, fostered and abetted 
by the acts of what they called the grupo cientifico, or 
grafters, and by the policy of the Minister of Finance 
in particular. This Minister was Sefior Limantour, a 
man of great ability, French by ancestry and education, 
but born in Mexico. Limantour had shown his devotion 
to the country in connection with the great drainage 
scheme for Mexico City, and above all in his masterly 
reorganization of Mexico's finance system. Through 
his tireless exertions as Finance Minister to Diaz he 
converted a heavy national deficit into an annual 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 27 



surplus ; but, charming though he was personally, he 
became unpopular and distrusted by the Mexican 
people. This distrust of Limantour had much to do 
with Diaz' downfall. 

When Madero stood up as chieftain of the revolution, 
inscribing on his banner the redress of this grievance, 
with some Utopias, the people followed him without 
stopping to measure his capabilities. His promises 
were enough. 

It is one of the saddest episodes in the history of great 
rulers, and at the same time one of the most important 
in the history of a country, that Mexico, which had 
pushed so brilliantly ahead in finance, industry and 
agriculture, had still lagged behind in political develop- 
ment. The man who made a great nation out of half- 
breeds and muddle was so sure of his own position, his 
own strength, and one may add of his own ideals and 
motives, that he did not encourage antagonism at the 
polls, and " free voting " remained a name only. 

Six years later Russia — not by any means under a 
great ruler, but still a powerful one — rose in something 
like the same way. Only twenty-five per cent, of the 
Russians can read or write, about the same number as 
in Mexico, and they too rose against the power in office 
in as dramatic a stride. 

Nations are like chickens, pecking at their egg-shell 
to free themselves from bondage ; but the chickens 
must be strong enough to stand, and Russia, China 
and Mexico have all stumbled badly with their newly 
acquired so-called freedom. 



28 MEXICO 



A German author has said that all rulers become ob- 
sessed with the passion of rule. They lose their balance, 
clearness of sight, judgment, and only desire to rule, 
rule, rule ! He was able to quote many examples. 
Would he in a new edition add General Diaz to his 
list ? 

On September 15th, 1910, Diaz celebrated his 
eightieth birthday. He had ruled Mexico, with one 
brief interval of four years, since 1876. For thirty-five 
years, therefore, with one short break, the country had 
known no other President ; and Madero, who laid him 
low, was a man more or less put into office by Diaz 
himself. A new generation of Mexicans had grown up 
under the rule of the older man. Time after time he 
had been re-elected with unanimity, no other candidate 
being nominated — or even suggested. Is it to be 
wondered at that, by the time his seventh term expired 
in 1910, he should have come to regard himself as 
indispensable. 

That he was so persuaded permits of no doubt. 

" He would remain in office so long as he thought 
Mexico required his services," he said, in the course of 
the first abortive negotiations for peace — before the 
capture of the frontier town of Juarez {El Paso) by 
the insurrectionists, and the surrender of the Republican 
troops under General Navarro took the actual settle- 
ment out of his hands. 

Diaz made a fatal mistake, and it shrouded in gloom 
the close of a career of unexampled brilliancy, both 
in war and statesmanship. 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 29 

The Spanish-American Republics have produced no 
man who will compare with Porlirio Diaz. Simon 
Bolivar for years fought the decaying power of Spain, 
and to him what are now the rapidly progressing 
Republics of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, 
and Peru owe their liberation. But Diaz had been 
more than a soldier, and his great achievement in 
the expansion and redemption of modern Mexico from 
bankruptcy and general decay completely shadowed his 
successes in the field during the ceaseless struggles of 
his earlier j^'ears. 

Had he retired in 1910 he would have done so with 
honour, and every hostile voice then rising in Mexico 
would have been stilled. All little squabbles would 
have been forgotten in remembrance of the immense 
debt that his country owed him. He would have stood 
out as the great historic figure of a glorious era in the 
national annals. He had told them he would retire — 
he did not. It was the first time he had broken his word 
with the people. Staying too long, he was driven from 
office by a movement of ideas, the strength of which it 
is evident that he never realized until too late, and by a 
rebellion that in the days of his vigorous autocracy he 
would have stamped out with his heel. 

This is a sad picture to look on, especially when one 
turns to that other one of the simple palace-home in 
Mexico City, with the fine old warrior, his nostrils 
dilating like a horse's at the covert side, his face aglow, 
his eyes flashing as he told of bygone battles, escapes 
from imprisonment and death, and deeds of wild 



30 MEXICO 

adventure and romance. These inspiriting recollections 
he freely gave for the " authentic biography " which 
he had given the writer permission to publish. Up 
to that time he had refused that favour to everyone ; 
and in spite of his grateful recognition of the " honesty 
and veracity " of the volume about his country five 
years before,* he was long in according his consent. 

" I have only done what I thought right," he said, 
" and it is my country and my ministers who have 
really made Mexico what she is." 

In the days of his strength corruption was unknown 
under his rule, and even now no finger can point at 
him. He retired a penniless man, to live on his wife's 
little fortune, inherited from her father. 

Diaz had the right to be egotistical, but he was 
modesty itself. Yet he had risen from his humble 
station by powers of statesmanship for which, owing 
to want of opportunity, he had shown no aptitude 
before he reached middle life. Before that he seemed 
but a good soldier, true as steel, brave, hardy, resource- 
ful in the field, and nothing more. It was not until 
he was actually President, that his gifts for govern- 
ment asserted themselves. Such late developments 
are rare, although, to take our own country, Cromwell 
was forty before he made any mark. Chatham, again, 
was fifty before he was heard of outside his own circle, 
and yet a few years later the country was at his feet. 

It is rather the cry nowadays that men's best work 
is done before forty, and even their good work no 
* " Mexico as I saw It." 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 31 

later than sixty ; but among endless exceptions 
General Diaz must take high rank. 

His real career began at forty-six. Up to that time 
he had been an officer in a somewhat disorganized 
army, and his ambition at the outset never soared 
beyond a colonelcy. 

He was nearly fifty when he entered Mexico City 
at the head of a revolutionary force. Romance and 
adventure were behind him, although personal peril 
still dogged his steps. He had to forget that he was 
a soldier, and to be born again as leader and politician, 
a maker and not a destroyer. 

Yet Diaz became a ruler, and a diplomat, and assumed 
the courtly manners of a prince. 

Even at sixty he was only on the high road to his 
best, which he reached about ten years later. At 
seventy-five he lacked nothing, either in energy or 
variety of power, that goes to the equipment of a 
ruler of men. This is especially remarkable for one 
of his race, born in a semi-tropical land. 

Paradoxical as it may seem, his overthrow was the 
result of a revolution mainly pacific in its nature, and 
in substance a revolt of public feeling against abuses 
that had become stereotyped in the system of govern- 
ment by the too long domination of one masterful 
will. The military rising was but its head, spitting 
fire. Behind was an immense body of opinion, in 
favour of effecting the retirement of the President 
by peaceful means, and with all honour to one who 
had served his country well. 



32 MEXICO 

In 1908 General Diaz had stated frankly, in an 
interview granted to an American journalist, that he 
was enjoying his last term of office, and at its expira- 
tion would spend his remaining years in private life. 
There is no reason to doubt that this assurance repre- 
sented his settled intention. The announcement was 
extensively published in the Mexican Press, and was 
never contradicted by the President himself. Then 
rumours gained currency that Diaz was not unprepared 
to accept nomination for the Presidency for an eighth 
term. The statement was at first discredited, then 
repeated without contradiction in a manner that could 
hardly have failed to excite surprise. At length came 
the fatal announcement that the President would 
stand again. 

Hardly had the bell of Independence ceased ringing 
out in joyous clang on September 15th, 1910, in cele- 
bration of free Mexico's centenary, hardly had the 
gorgeous fetes for the President's birthday, or the 
homage paid him by the whole world run their course, 
when the spark of discontent became a blaze. He 
had mistaken the respect and regard of his people for 
an invitation to remain in office. 

By the time the Presidential election approached, 
signs of agitation had increased. A political party 
rose in direct hostility, not so much to General Diaz 
himself or Limantour, as to the Vice-President, who, 
as next in the succession in the event of the demise of 
the President, would have been able to rivet his 
autocracy on the country. 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 33 



The Vice-President, Senor Ramon Corral, had been 
chosen by Diaz himself — but who was Corral ? 

Briefly, Don Ramon Corral was born in Alamos, 
Sonora (the North West province running parallel to 
Lower California), in 1854. Editor of two newspapers 
— El Fantasma and Voz de Alamos — he exchanged the 
pen for the sword in 1875. He defended the agricul- 
tural interests of Sonora in the Federal Congress, was 
made Vice-Governor of Sonora in 1887, and elected 
Vice-President of Mexico in 1904. He was a man 
of strong, attractive personality, with greyish hair, 
and dark, penetrating eyes, but so lined that he looked 
at fifty as old as did Diaz at seventy-five. What the 
writer saw of him she liked, but then (1904) he had 
hardly taken up the reins of power. He did not make 
himself popular ; he was not considered honest by 
many people, in fact, a large part of the country 
hated and distrusted him. But for that, probably, 
nothing would have been heard of the troubles which 
ensued. As the party anxious for the introduction 
of new blood into the Government increased in vigour, 
the people showed themselves more and more deter- 
mined to get rid of Corral. They wanted a younger 
man than Diaz in the President's chair : they wanted, 
above all, the prospect of a strong and straight suc- 
cessor. The honesty of Diaz himself was never disputed 
for one second, and that was why the people were 
surprised at his being so blinded. 

But the official group whose interests depended on 
the maintenance of the Diaz regime was, for the 

3 



34 MEXICO 



moment, too powerful, and it succeeded in inducing 
the President to accept re-election. 

To the general hatred of this group on the part of 
the nation Madero owed his success. He was almost 
unknown, but the malcontents were determined to 
act, and to act at once, and they could not afford to 
pick and choose a leader. As a proof that the country 
thought less of the democratic principles invoked 
than of the destruction of the official cientiflcos, may be 
cited the fact that it at first placed all its trust and 
confidence in General Reyes, who was just as despotic 
and autocratic as General Diaz, but had, at the same 
time, to them, a redeeming quality — his avowed 
opposition to the gang. Reyes refused to head the 
insurrection, and it was then Madero or nobody. 

The attempt to perpetuate the Presidency in the 
hands of one man, and especially of one party, had 
been the main cause of the rising. Originally, the 
term of office was only four years without power of 
re-election. After the first four years of power, Diaz 
altered this, and made re-election possible. When 
the writer was in Mexico for the second time, in 1904, 
he went even further, and instituted a six years' term 
and a Vice-President ; consequently, the very man 
who had fought against the re-election of Lerdo 
de Tejada, himself gradually assumed the continuous 
power he had once decried. He thought that his 
doing so was for his country's good, which it most 
undoubtedly was at the time, judging by the stupendous 
results. But things move rapidly in these days, and 




fl^ 3 Sow i/t." y ^ 




General Reyes. 



[To face p. 34. 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 35 

Mexico caught the fever of unrest, and the longing for 
change. The President would have been all right 
without his following. The people had tired of 
repetitions of the same abuses by those in power, 
abuses which became more and more apparent with 
the President's advancing years. A change was 
necessary ; and they demanded that at least they 
should be allowed to have a Vice-President of their 
own choice. All concession was refused ; and the 
disappointment embittered them not only against 
Corral, but against Diaz himself. 

There was a large party that wished to support 
General Reyes as a possible opponent to the President. 
Reyes had been Secretary for War ; he was most 
popular with the Mexican army ; and as Governor 
of one of the Northern States had made himself much 
beloved. For years many regarded him as the successor 
of Diaz. In fact, at one time his popularity became 
awkward to the authorities in Mexico. Rather than risk 
disturbances, Diaz chose him to be Governor of the 
State of Nueve Leon, and sent him away to the North. 

Bernardo Reyes was born in the beautiful old 
Spanish town with the pretty Indian name, Guadalajara, 
in 1850. Not only was he a soldier, he was also a 
statesman of unblemished character. He had always 
displayed extraordinary bravery. Loyal to the Con- 
stitutional Government, he had supported both Juarez 
and Lerdo in warfare before Diaz became President, 
but deserted by his soldiers as the cause waned, he 
surrendered to Diaz. So excellent was his record for 



36 MEXICO 



valour, patriotism and loyalty that the new President 
appointed Reyes commander of the Sixth Regiment of 
Cavalry. Years of active work were passed in quieting 
outbreaks in various parts of Mexico ; but it was not 
till 1880, when Reyes took part in a great action at 
Villa Union, receiving three dangerous wounds, that 
the power of the man was fully recognized, and he was 
subsequently made General. 

He was a delightful man. He was well educated, 
with charming manners, and considerable political 
and diplomatic knowledge. A strong Liberal in politics, 
he became a staunch friend and admirer of Diaz, in 
whose footsteps he loyally trod for many years. Later 
they quarrelled, to make it up again before they died. 

Faithful to his chief, Reyes finally resigned the 
governorship in 1910, before the Presidential election, 
and was sent to Europe to study methods of military 
conscription in different countries — probably to get 
him out of the way. At the outbreak of the insurrec- 
tion he was in Paris. His partisans, deceived in their 
hope of his co-operation and discouraged by his 
absence from the country, had no resource but to look 
for another leader. 

And so it was that in the spring of 1910 Senor 
Francisco Madero came to the front of the stage. He 
was a man of education, of fortune, of courage — plain- 
faced and squat in figure — and a lawyer by profession. 
He had written a book called The Presidential Succession. 
This book, quiet and reasonable in tone, had an 
enormous sale, and Senor Madero pocketed not a peso 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 37 

of the profits. He was a wealthy man in no need of 
emoluments, which was doubtless a point in his favour 
with a public accustomed to being fleeced by its officials. 
But they should have remembered that a man, once in 
office, is certain to be pestered by a host of greedy para- 
sites and relatives. Even Diaz could not fight down 
the rapacity of some of his followers and concessionnaires. 

Although without experience in the management of 
State affairs, Madero had shown that he had the courage 
of his convictions. He consented to stand against Diaz 
in a contest for the Presidency of the Republic, but he 
had not, in spite of his literary work upon the Govern- 
ment of the country, appreciated the full scope of the 
responsibilities of the Presidential office in Mexico. 

He himself — forty-two years old and a strong 
idealist — belonged to the " patrician " class, who had 
a " feudal system," so to speak, of their own on their 
large haciendas (farm ranches), while the capitalists 
and many of the foreigners settled in Mexico repre- 
sented another — we may say the modern — side of the 
moneyed class. Beyond these were the peasantry, 
the peons. But this classification does not include all 
the population of Mexico by any means. There are 
eighteen millions, nearly all of them Indians or Mestizos 
(half-castes) : people who, century after century, have 
been neglected and kept down in their barbaric habits ; 
people among whom a multiplicity of languages is 
spoken, yet who are largely ignorant of Spanish, the 
tongue of the governing'class. 

Neither had he measured his own mental calibre and 



38 MEXICO 



attainments beside those of President Diaz, whom he 
aspired to succeed, and to whom he was a dwarf in 
intellect and in capacity for organization and adminis- 
tration. He failed to realize — in fact, he did not 
know — what Mexico really was without its maker, 
whom he had ventured to despise for the few limitations 
which had grown up round the veteran chief. 

Howbeit, in him the malcontents had found their 
leader. Madero not only accepted nomination, but 
began an active campaign, making speeches against 
the Diaz administration, denouncing abuses, especially 
the retention of office by the Vice-President, and the 
tactics of Finance Minister Limantour, and showing 
the people that as General Diaz was then eighty years 
of age, and his new term would not expire until 1916, 
Vice-President Corral would almost certainly succeed 
to the inheritance of the Diaz rSgime. 

Energetic, courageous and outspoken, Madero had 
full command of the phraseology of the demagogue. 
His only shortcoming in the eyes of his own party was 
that he had not been persecuted by the Government. 
The officials, alas, soon supplied this deficiency. A few 
days before the Presidential election, in July, 1910, 
when making a speech in Monterey (a hundred miles 
from the north-east frontier), Madero was arrested as 
a disturber of the peace and thrown into prison, where 
he was kept till the close of the poll. 

The election resulted, as usual, in a triumphant 
majority for General Diaz, though votes were recorded, 
even in the capital itself, for the anti-electionist leader. 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 39 

As soon as opportunity offered, Madcro escaped to 
the United States, and from that vantage-ground kept 
up a correspondence with his friends and partisans. 
Though the election had been held in July, the in- 
auguration of the President did not take place until 
December, 1910. A fortnight before that date a con- 
spiracy, at which Madero probably connived, was dis- 
covered at Puebla — about sixty-five miles south-east of 
the capital — as will be fully described in the next 
chapter. 

Trouble followed trouble, general discontent reigned 
in the north, which, be it remembered, runs to a distance 
of a thousand miles from Mexico City itself. But 
nothing really serious occurred, until suddenly, in the 
early weeks of 1911, President Taft mobilized a force 
of 20,000 American troops to watch the Mexican 
frontier. From that time events developed rapidly 
till the end of the Diaz rigime in May. It was said that 
a treaty which had been made between Mexico and 
Japan allowed the latter the use of Mexican waters for 
manoeuvres, and constituted a menace against the 
United States. It was all moonshine — though we now 
know what Germany's views were in this regard — but 
it was good enough to print for the purpose of the 
moment, and that was enough. So it went in with 
fanciful accounts of the fighting until one thing became 
clear, that the revolution was rapidly making its way 
to victory, and that Diaz, prostrate with an agonizing 
illness, was in no condition to rally his disheartened 
followers in person. 



40 MEXICO 

He saved his honour, as the phrase goes, by a declara- 
tion that he would not retire from office until peace was 
declared. He struggled hard. He was too ill to leave 
his simple house in one of the chief streets of the city, 
where he lived less ostentatiously than many of his 
fellow citizens, but this did not prevent the mob from 
firing upon his home. On the afternoon of May 25th, 
1911, he resigned, and Seiior de la Barra, formerly 
Minister at Washington, became provisional President 
until the next election, fixed for October. 

Three days after signing his abdication, General Diaz 
was well enough to leave Mexico City. He entered 
Mexico City fighting, and he left her shore with bullets 
ringing in the air. This was but the third time 
that Diaz had left the land of his birth. Later on will 
be found a full account of his dramatic and sad flight 
by an eyewitness. 

And so the great Diaz, whose work is imperishable, 
passed from power — the power he had used so well — 
but his memory did not pass from the hearts of his 
countrymen. 

Verily amoving spectacle from first to last. A 
dramatic exit from a dramatic scene. 



It is a peculiar circumstance, from which the future 
historian of Mexico and its famous President will draw 
a moral, that Diaz himself had early foreseen the evil 
which after five-and-thirty years became his own undo- 
ing. No one more staunchly than Diaz had upheld the 



DEVELOPMENTS AND MADERO 41 

law which sought to make impossible the re-election 
for a second term of the President of the Republic and 
the Governors of the States. In forty years of anarchy 
between the attainment of Mexican independence in 
1821 and the arrival of the hapless Emperor Maximilian, 
this had been the issue at stake in a hundred fights. 
Nothing was easier than for a dictator, once he had 
secured election to the President's chair, constitution- 
ally so to manipulate the voting that, save by an 
armed rising, he could never be replaced. 

That became a system. In the welter of Mexican 
history in the first half of the last century hardly one 
President succeeded another by the peaceful means of 
votes cast at the polls. 

Political elections were " managed " in the most 
ridiculous way in almost every contest. In Mexico, 
as said, there had been before the time of Diaz fifty- 
two Presidents, or other rulers, in less than sixty years. 
The method was brought to full perfection by the un- 
scrupulous Santa Anna. The other Central and South 
American Republics also gave countless examples. 
The gravity of the danger was recognized by the founders 
of the Mexican Constitution in 1857, and they made 
the President ineligible for re-election. But this pro- 
vision, though highly desirable, had in the divided state 
of the country never been enforced. 

For this, moreover, Diaz fought campaign after cam- 
paign, at first for President Judrez in his long struggle 
against Maximilian, and afterwards against that same 
Juarez, his former friend. 



CHAPTER III 

REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 

A HUNDRED years of kaleidoscopic history. 
We must now pass to the fuller narrative, 
beginning with the momentous year 1910, the 
Centenary of the Declaration of Mexico's Independence. 

In view of the celebrations of September (1910) all 
nations were sending their Special Envoys to Mexico 
City, to bring honour and congratulations to the 
nation and its octogenarian President. It was to 
him a moment of great personal triumph and world- 
wide recognition. 

France, Spain, America, Norway, Germany, Holland 
were all represented by men of renown. Britain was 
mourning her King-Emperor, Edward VII., and there- 
fore took no part in the rejoicings except to send an 
address to the President ; but our newspapers were 
full of his praise. 

The German Press published a eulogy of General Diaz, 
and of Mexican progress generally. The German Em- 
peror presented a statue of Baron Alexander von 
Humboldt, the naturalist, who long years before had 
visited Mexico, and conferred the Collar of the Grand 

42 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 43 

Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle on the President, 
besides writing congratulations on his birthday. 

Was Germany, in paying this homage, out to win 
Mexico, when she should have disposed of Belgium, 
France and England ? Was this her first move towards 
acquiring that great land for her trade, her emigrants, 
and her general expansion ? 

Was the picture (an awful painting) of the Kaiser, 
hanging behind Diaz as he spoke from the balcony, 
prophetic of the Kaiser's wish to rule Mexico at no late 
date ? Anyway, there that life-sized portrait hung, a 
personal gift from a strong ruler to another strong ruler, 
sent with words of the deepest esteem. 

Italy gave a statue of Garibaldi, America one of 
General Washington, which the Huertists, when the 
American warships intervened at Vera Cruz, promptly 
knocked down. The Generalissimo of the Spanish 
Army came with a special gift, which touched the 
Mexican heart to the core — the uniform and other relics 
of Jos^ Maria Morelos, generalissimo in the Mexican 
War of Independence, who rendered great national 
services and was captured and shot in 1815. The 
relics were moved with military honours and great 
pomp from the special Ambassador's temporary quarters 
to the National Palace, flags that had been carried in 
the War of Independence fluttered in the procession, 
borne by officers of the Federal troops ; and General 
Diaz received them amid the booming of guns and ring- 
ing of bells, concluding his words of thanks with the 
cry of " Viva VEspagna .' " " Viva la Madre Granda ! " 



44 MEXICO 



One other gift must have brought back more vivid 
scenes to the memory of Diaz : the old keys of the City 
of Mexico, sent by the Republic of France, the France 
he later learned to love. 

For ten days Mexico City was en fete ; the first cere- 
mony being the unveiling of a monument by the Presi- 
dent to the memory of the Mexican cadets who fell 
in the defence in 184S of ChapuUepcc, that grand old 
rocky fortress, once the meeting-place of Montezuma 
and Cortes, and later the palace of the Emperor Maxi- 
milian and his beautiful consort Carlota. Various 
functions of a State character followed daily. The 
foreign envoys were entertained and on the President's 
birthday — the eve of the great day — a pageant, 
organized by Seiior de Landa y Escandon, represented 
Mexican history from the time of the Aztecs up to 
the establishment of the Mexican Republic. The ten 
thousand participators — including fifty pure-blooded 
Aztecs — marched through the PJaza in front of the 
National Palace, where the President and his dis- 
tinguished foreign guests and the diplomatic circle 
reviewed them. 

Each night the streets were illuminated and rejoicings 
were carried on with the greatest zest and enthusiasm. 
Pergolas of glorious tropical blooms and arches in the 
national colours decorated the streets. The words 
'■ Progress " and " Liberty " shone from the towers 
of the magnificent old Spanish cathedral, which was 
beautifully outlined with coloured lights. These facts 
alone showed how universal was the celebration, for the 



«r 







REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 45 



Government had always left the Church unrecognized 
since its severance from the State by Juarez. 

It was in such a setting that, at the usual hour of 
eleven on September 16th, President Diaz struck the 
bell of Miguel Hidalgo — the before-mentioned patriot 
priest. Enthusiastic as was the crowd on that occasion, 
the feelings of the masses assembled at the Centenary 
passed all bounds : never before had this great national 
event evoked such a scene. 

Above that seething crowd, in that wonderful Mexican 
night, with a blue-black sky overhead, calm and digni- 
fied, President Diaz stood, surrounded by his guests 
and by representatives of the greatest potentates of 
civilized countries. The man whose " edifice was 
the nation." 

This was indeed a moment of triumph. There stood 
the saviour of Mexico, the man who had made the 
country. There he stood in the full vigour of a man of 
sixty, and yet his age was really eighty. Was there 
ever a more remarkable position than this ? The 
peasant boy who had made and ruled a nation for 
thirty-five years, honoured by all countries, whose 
representatives stood around him, beloved by his 
people. He was at the highest pinnacle of success. 
He had reached a zenith ; but the hawks were in 
the air. 

There and then it was — as said before — that Diaz 
made the mistake of his life. 



46 MEXICO 



On November 6th, 1910, a great banquet was held in 
London in celebration of this Centenary, at which Seiior 
Limantour was present ; and Sir Edward Grey — the 
British Minister for Foreign Affairs — speaking of the 
success of Mexico, said : 

" It was not merely the success of the nation, but the 
fact that that success had been so closely connected 
with such a remarkable personality as that of President 
Diaz, that aroused so much interest in the world at 
large with regard to Mexico. The President of the 
United States of Mexico had shown how wisdom, 
energy and strength could be combined in one person." 

That banquet, held in the greatest city of the world, 
was a triumph for the Mexican ruler in his far-away 
land. Important men from every nation were present 
to do him honour. 

Diaz' name and fame had reached the farthest corners 
of the earth. He was proclaimed a great ruler, and, the 
writer ventures to think, the greatest character of the 
nineteenth century. But as the bell of Hidalgo tolled, 
and the glasses clashed in London, the doom of the 
great man was being written on the parchment of time. 



In December, 1905, as we know, when he was pro- 
claimed President for the seventh time, Diaz was at the 
height of his glory. He was then seventy-five years 
old. Full of manly vigour, mental power, health and 
strength, the nation was at his feet. His position was 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 47 

unique in the world's history. All was well. No king 
of long ancestry was on a more solid throne than this 
elected Mexican. 

The rumble of discontent had not been heard, the 
murmur of unrest was not yet. 

Still living his simple life in his own private house 
in Cadena — with spells at the Castle of Chapultepec 
— Diaz, although befitting the role of a private gentle- 
man, was really the strongest ruler in the world. His 
own personal word was law. He had relaxed much 
of the stern hand that had controlled and shaped his 
country, had given the people better education, given 
freely all he could, listened to every new idea of teach- 
ing which he thought might be of value to the nation, 
and done his best to raise those people above anarchy 
and bloodshed. 

The country was prosperous. He and Mexico were 
j^oked together. The pair were well harnessed to the 
pole, their shoulders were in the collars, and Liberty 
sat in the car behind them. Who could have foreseen 
what half a dozen years would bring forth ? 



Such had been the happy circumstances, the revelry, 
the world-wide homage, the absolute accord of all 
parties in the rejoicings of September, that the murmurs 
of discontent were forgotten by many. 

But all the time the strong undercurrent of revolt 
was increasing daily throughout the breadth and 



48 MEXICO 



length of the land. Emissaries of the anti-Porfirista 
party were at work, and early in November reports 
reached Mexico City of anticipated risings in many 
directions. 

These rumours, however, caused no undue alarm. 
Mexican history was made up of revolutions, or risings 
in one State or another. Even under the pacific rule 
of Diaz, who personally knew no fear, and had always 
smothered such developments at their birth, they had 
occurred from time to time. 

Then the storm burst like a bomb. 
News of an Anarchist plot at Puehla against the 
re-election of General Diaz reached the police, who 
visited a house where a meeting was in progress. A 
woman opened the door to them, and as they went 
in, shot the Chief of the Police dead. A fearful 
scene followed between the Anarchists and Federal 
troops and rurales — the armed mounted military 
guard. 

That was the first spark of the Revolution. 
Trouble quickly broke out on every side. Serior 
Francisco Madero, who, on being liberated from his 
prison at San Luis Poiosi, had gone to San Antonio, 
in Texas, placed himself at the head of the Revolu- 
tionists, and lost no opportunity to fan the smouldering 
passions of discontent into activity. He commanded 
a force of several hundred men in the north-eastern 
State of Coahuila, where every inch of the ground 
was known to him. Another force attacked volcanic 
Orizaba, and threw bombs into the barracks, spreading 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 49 

death among the soldiers, and Hberated the poHtical 
prisoners confined there. The whole district of Chihua- 
hua in the north was in a state of riot. The rebels had 
a special grievance against the all-powerful family of 
General Terrazas, and Senor Creel — the hated Minister 
for Foreign Affairs — hailed from there. A prison was 
also broken open at Acambaro, in the State of Guanjuato. 
In fact, the country stretching out to the American 
frontier was seething with rebellion. 

Fighting broke out again in Puebla. In ]\Iexico 
City a plot for the assassination of some of the Ministers 
and the imprisonment of General Diaz was discovered 
on the very day on which it was to have been per- 
petrated, and revolution declared in the capital. 

Some of the telegraph wires were cut by the 
rebels. Others were commandeered by the Govern- 
ment. 

This was undoubtedly a mistake, for, instead of a 
steady supply of official news being available, sensa- 
tional reports were circulated in the United States 
and Europe, and gained acceptance in spite of denials 
by the Mexican Ministers and by Senor Limantour, 
who was in Paris. 

About ten days before the outbreak of the revolt, 
a Mexican in Texas committed a terrible crime, and 
was summarily lynched by Americans. In con- 
sequence, an anti-American riot arose in Mexico City, 
and a tramcar in which the American Ambassador's 
son happened to be a passenger was stoned ; but the 
Government firmly suppressed the movement, the two 

4 



50 MEXICO 

Presidents of the States and Mexico exchanged ex- 
pressions of confidence, and the transgressors in both 
countries were punished. 

A further incident, though trifling in itself, increased 
the tension, and there was believed to be a strong 
feeling against Americans among the Revolutionists, 
especially as the Government at Washington took 
prompt steps to prevent the importation of arms and 
ammunition for the use of the latter. Soldiers were 
drafted to the frontier, the situation being considered 
grave by the United States authorities. 

Sefior Francisco Madero lost no time in declaring 
himself President of the Provisional Government, and 
demanded that Diaz should resign, together with 
Corral and his Cabinet ; that an absolutely free 
electoral Government should be established ; and 
that all political prisoners should be released. At the 
same time he issued warnings to his followers to abstain 
from attacking American and foreign property, and 
sent his brother, Gustavo Madero, to Washington as 
his confidential representative, 

Mexico City, famous for its beautiful, old Spanish 
buildings, shared the general agitation. Soldiers 
patrolled the streets, and political prisoners arrived in 
large numbers. 

One of the chief causes of discontent was the lack 
of freedom of the Press. Directly a newspaper con- 
tained any suggestion of reform, the editor was taken 
to Belem gaol — an institution that itself was in dire 
need of reform — and thrown into its loathsome 




Church of " San Hipolito " damaged by bombardment. 



[To face p. 51. 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 51 

dungeons. An attack on this special prison had been 
one of the items in the revohitionary plans. 

The ardour of the soldier revived in the octoge- 
narian President at the first cry of war. Abroad 
everyone had the utmost confidence in his prompt 
and decisive action. Troops were sent to every centre 
of disturbance within a few hours of the earliest 
news of the outbreak. Before the day of the Presi- 
dent's inauguration, cablegrams announced in Europe 
that order was restored throughout the land, except 
in Chihuahua ; and though rumours of fighting between 
the Federal troops and the rebels in that district con- 
tinued to filter through, the general edict was that the 
country was practically quiet, and all was going on in 
the usual way. 

But this restoration of order did not mean the 
conquest of the rebels ; it was a mere superficial 
pacification, effected by driving the revolutionaries 
into the mountains, where they gained both adherents 
and force, and were ready to come out again at the 
first propitious moment. 

Madero had pulled the strings of agitation with good 
result ; district after district yielded small bodies of 
men to his emissaries, but there was no concerted 
action or discipline amongst them, and the Federal 
troops easily drove them back. Madero was himself 
no soldier, and had never had anything to do with 
the organized control of men. But his first object was 
to prevent the re-inauguration of Diaz and Corral, and 
'-e thought to achieve this by plunging the country into 

4* 



52 MEXICO 

a seething hotbed of rebellion. His " respectable " 
followers, so to speak, were daily supplemented by 
bands of brigands, and undoubtedly the Church gave 
a considerable amount of support. The outlaws did 
not add to the good reputation of his forces, but the 
Church increased his substance. 

On the other hand. President Diaz and his circle 
made the mistake of never rightly measuring the power 
of the forces behind Madero, nor the number of his 
followers. The result of the election in July had been 
misleading as to the state of jDublic opinion in Diaz' 
favour. The time was not rij)e then for action on the 
part of Madero's supporters. He had no office, no 
position, to offer — President Diaz had both. Alas ! 
for the weakness of humanity. 

General Diaz and his Ministers thought Madero a 
theorist, a man who had never governed, yet laid 
down the law on government ; a dreamer of dreams 
— maybe a seeker after notoriety. When the rebellion 
broke out, a man high in office is alleged to have called 
them disdainfully : " Riots — the work of a disappointed 
politician," and Sefior Limantour attached so little 
importance to the matter he still lingered in Europe. 

But Madero had dogged determination ; moreover, 
by those few days' fighting he saw the weak points of 
the revolutionists. They must organize : they must 
learn the value of concerted movements ; they must, 
above all, accept discipline and practise caution. 
Many of the prisoners had been taken with revolutionary 
documents on them. Curious stories were told of 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 53 

ransacking mattresses to find papers, rummaging in 
the linings of hats and otherwise finding hidden treasure 
in conceahnent. Never was the picturesque side 
missing in Mexican history. 

Amid repeated statements that order was restored, 
the day of the President's inauguration arrived. 

Rumours were afloat that great changes would take 
place in the Ministry, including the resignation of 
Corral, and the name of General Reyes again passed 
from one to another. But Reyes, as mentioned before, 
was in Paris, and had no wish to oppose the Diaz 
regime. 

Diaz and Corral both took the oath on December 10th, 
1910, and according to custom, the Cabinet resigned. 
But on this occasion Diaz requested the Ministers to 
remain in office for the time being. 

Everything went off quietly, yet, though Mexico 
City was strongly policed, there was no feeling of 
security. In the north and in Yucatan (in the south- 
east) fighting was still going forward, and Madero 
continued to call himself Provisional President. The 
influence of the rebellion was affecting the peons 
(proletariat), Avho, though not actually in the fighting- 
lines, were putting difficulties in the way of the Federal 
Army, both as to transport and supplies of provisions, 
thus indirectly lending assistance to the insurreclos. 

Madero already found himself in no easy position. 

Not having succeeded in preventing the inauguration 
of the President and his Vice-President, he tried to 
enforce a temporary cessation of hostilities, in order 



54 MEXICO 



to establish a more complete organization among his 
followers and a plan of campaign. But many of his 
men were out of control. The region in the far-off 
north was infested not only by bandits, but by 
desperadoes both of Mexican and American origin, and, 
once the excitement of fighting was upon them, they 
carried on a guerrilla warfare, emerging from their 
mountain haunts and canyons to harass the Federal 
troops. 

Still Madero carried out his intention with the main 
body, and the last days of 1910 found the Federal 
forces under General Navarro hard pressed in Chi- 
huahua. He was, in fact,- only able to stand on the 
defensive until reinforcements reached him. A train 
of soldiers going to his aid was attacked in the moun- 
tains at Malpaso, but that stronghold being captured 
by the Federals, the New Year was ushered in with 
the news from Mexico City that the Federal troops 
had struck a " deathblow to the insurrectos.''^ 

With that decisive announcement the outside world 
was for a fortnight left content ; no further news 
came through from Mexico. Strict censorship, com- 
bined with cut or commandeered telegraph wires, 
maintained a national silence. It was only in the 
middle of January, when disturbances began on tht 
frontier of Texas, that the continuance of the revolt 
was known outside of the country. 

But why, everyone began to ask, was Diaz so dilatory 
in sending sufficient forces to stamp out such an 
organized revolt, insignificant as his Government 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 55 



made it out to be ? Where was his Army ? Where 
were his old unerring tactics of short shrift ? 
The reason is not hard to find. 
President Diaz had no more men to send ! 
It is all very well to be wise after the event, but it 
counts for nothing. If at the beginning of the trouble 
Diaz had only realized how serious it was, and could 
have counted upon a hundred thousand, or even fifty 
thousand, seasoned troops, all would have been well. 
He could have placed them in groups of five hundred 
all down the eighteen hundred miles of country, and 
with rapid concentration would soon have quelled the 
revolt. As it was, the desire for economy— the build- 
ing up of a golden reserve in the cellars and the 
Treasury— had become so great that even the Army 
had been cut down till only some fifteen thousand 
regular troops remained. What were they against 
the swarms of malcontents drawn from a population 
of about eighteen million ? 

Limantour, General Diaz' trusted Minister of Finance, 
had a wonderful way of getting the best of a deal. 
He was in a position of considerable power, and upon 
this fact he played for all he was worth. He always 
drove a hard bargain, always stuck out for every 
possible concession, never gave anything away. At 
last his power was absolute. He was not loved, but 
he was much feared. His parsimony was intense, but 
for which the Mexican Army would never have been 
allowed to dwindle as it did. He saved money on all 
sides. Of course, from a financial point of view this 



56 MEXICO 



was magnificent, if it could be done without starving 
and robbing national organization ; but when they 
required men to fight for the President and the Govern- 
ment, Limantour had overstepped the limit, and the 
fighting men were insufficient in number to grapple 
with the situation. 

It is a pitiable story. 

Far away in the northern States General Navarro 
struggled on in those early days of February, 1911, 
with a small force of men, confronted by three thou- 
sand rebels. Mines were left unworked, trains held up, 
Government officials arrested and shot by the rebels. 
Fighting raged along the banks of the Rio Grande, 
and Ciudad Juarez {El Paso), surrounded by a savage 
and undisciplined army led by Orozco, was the scene 
of a great demonstration on the part of the rebels. 

Navarro, in order to concentrate his soldiers there, 
was obliged to withdraw them from Chihuahua and 
Cruerrero. This development caused fresh activity on 
the American frontier. The United States troops 
were joined by a biplane for reconnoitring purposes — 
this being probably the first use of an aeroplane in 
warfare. Fighting continued until the middle of 
February, when another optimistic statement asserted 
that Navarro had successfully brought the Juarez 
campaign to an end. 



Three weeks of silence ensued. 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 57 



Then suddenly, on March 8th, President Taft, 
without warning, mobiUzed his troops ; 20,000 men 
had orders to proceed immediately to Texas ; battle- 
ships were sent with equal celerity to Galveston. 

Their movements concentrated the attention of the 
world on IMexico. Was it intervention ? Was it 
war ? 

Wild rumours mingled with one another, regardless 
of the assurance from Washington that the mobilization 
was only a test of preparedness for war in the Army 
and Navy, and amounted to nothing more than 
manoeuvres. 

The insurrection became important in the theatre 
of international affairs. The Chancelleries were dis- 
turbed by fears of what might happen after Diaz. 
The bourses were keenly concerned. The amount of 
foreign money invested in Mexico was enormous. 
It is computed that British capital alone at this time 
represented over £100,000,000. There was a flutter of 
excitement among those foreigners whose interests 
were bound up in Mexico, which was intensified when 
it became known that Limantour had returned 
hurriedly from Paris via New York, and on the 
journey had conferred with Sefior de la Barra, the 
Mexican Minister at Washington, the American Am- 
bassador to Mexico, and various leading financiers. 
What could all this portend ? 

Mr. Taft, through proper diplomatic channels, 
expressed the hope that the President of Mexico would 
pay no attention to sensational statements in tli« 



58 MEXICO 



Press, and again asserted that manoeuvres were the 
sole reason of the mobilization. Seiior de la Barra 
issued a like statement at Washington, and Senor 
Creel, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mexico, cabled it 
to England. Yet at the very moment the message 
was flashing under the ocean, two more scout cruisers 
were scurrying over its waters to Galveston and 
Tampico, armoured cruisers sailed for the Gulf of 
Mexico, and three additional aeroplanes joined the 
forces on the frontier ; in short, twenty thousand 
troops patrolled the border, fourteen thousand were at 
San Antonio, and American cruisers kept patrol of 
both coasts of Mexico. 

A couple of weeks passed ; then President Taft 
candidly confessed that the mobilization of the troops 
was a precautionary measure, as the prolonged fighting 
in Mexico threatened both foreign and American resi- 
dents and property, which therefore must be protected ; 
and further announced that they would remain where 
they were until quiet was restored in Mexico. 

This prevarication was somewhat absurd and 
unaccountable. 



Meanwhile, guerrilla warfare was continuing. Diaz, 
failing men, took measures to make all lawlessness 
punishable by death, hoping thus to place a check on 
the peasant class joining the insurrectos. 

Madero was at San Diego with the rebels ; bands of 



REVOLUTIONARY RUMBLINGS 59 



his men were fighting in Chihuahua and Sonora, and in- 
vesting small townships until they reduced the inhabi- 
tants — men, women, and children — to starvation. Then 
an outbreak came in another direction — at Vera Cruz — 
attended with fatal results and the liberation of 
l^risoners ; and this was immediately followed by the 
blowing up of the frontier Federal barracks at Juarez 
with nitro-glycerine, many of the soldiers being injured. 

Diaz thereupon published a declaration that the 
country would be under martial law for six months, and 
all damage to railways, telegraphs, etc., would be made a 
capital offence. 

Still matters did not improve — rather the reverse. 
The world was taken by surprise when the announce- 
ment was made that President Diaz, Limantour, 
de la Barra (who had accompanied the latter from New 
York) and others, were considering measures of reform 
which they hoped would lead to the pacification of the 
country and end the revolt. 

But the old warrior President would not hear of con- 
cessions being made until all disorder had ceased. He 
now accepted the resignation of the Cabinet, originally 
tendered at his inauguration ; and in the new Ministry 
Seiior de la Barra was given the portfolio of Foreign 
Affairs in the place of Senor Creel, whose dismissal was 
an unacknowledged concession to the country in 
general and the State of Chihuahua in particular. 

No successor was named to Corral as Minister of the 
Interior. The Vice-President asked for indefinite leave 
of absence on account of his health, and sailed for 



60 MEXICO 



Europe in the course of a week or two. General Reyes 
was again named by the populace as Minister of War, 
but Sefior Cosio took that office. De la Barra was 
regarded with hopefulness, for though he belonged to 
one of the rich old Mexican families, he had progressed 
with the times, and had been respected as Ambassador 
in Washington. 

In the face of such changes in the capital, Madero 
again sent out a pronouncement that he would not lay 
down arms until President Diaz himself resigned, and 
an absolutely free electoral government was assured. 

This brought matters to a deadlock, for the aged 
President was also firm in his decision not to retire from 
the Presidential office so long as his country continued 
in a state of anarchy. 



CHAPTER IV 



CRISIS 



IT cannot be reiterated too often that Mexico is a 
vast country. 

Mexico extends in length over two thousand miles, 
or is as long as from Iceland to Africa. It measures a 
thousand miles across the widest area. It is vast, it 
contains every climate from tropical to northern ; it 
has huge mountains, some of the greatest volcanoes 
in the world ; and some of the largest rivers are to be 
found in the south, although water is lacking in the 
north. The north is flat and hideous, the south beau- 
tiful and mountainous. Mexico produces every class 
of ore, and every form of agriculture, and some of the 
most picturesque and beautiful old Spanish towns in 
the world remain from the days when they were built 
by Cortes in 1519. 

One cannot help being struck with the contrast 
between the two coasts. On the Pacific shore every- 
thing is dry ; on the Gulf (Atlantic) everything is wet. 
A depth of eight or ten feet of soil is common. 

Revolution in a country of such spaces, with virgin 
forests and some of the world's greatest mountain 

6i 



62 MEXICO 

lands, is necessarily difficult to combat. The races are 
the people of the soil ; caves and rude dwellings are 
often their homes. 

Mexico has always had a history ; it begins, in fact, 
with one of the earliest records in the world. 

In case readers have forgotten the story of Mexico, 
or have never read that thrilling narrative, Prescott's 
" History," let us sum it up in a few lines. 

Mexican history begins well-nigh five thousand years 



It had a highly-skilled population two or three 
thousand years back, who built vast temples, many 
remnants of which aye standing to-day. Those 
colossal stones — monoliths — from which they are hewn 
are often beautifully carved. At Oaxaca there are 
fifteen different styles of ornamentation known as 
Grecques. These are square, straight lines deeply 
chiselled in the stone itself, although conjecture cannot 
settle how that wonderful carving was done. These 
Grecques belong to the Zapotec tribes. 

The Aztec carvings at Xochicalco and elsewhere are 
quite different in style. They are not Greek in character, 
but depict life. Heads of Indians, feather-decked ; 
enormous weird serpents, eagles, other living things 
and terrible gods. 

Again, many articles have been found, including 
silver gods, stone gods, clay gods, with the heavy nostril, 
thick lips, swollen eyes and wig curls of the Egyptians. 
And many enormous pyramids are to be found in Mexico 
even to-day. 



CRISIS 68 

No one knows their real history. All is conjecture. 
How did these similarities of workmanship with the 
East ever get to Mexico ? There are dozens of theories, 
but suffice it to say Mexico was a highly cultured land 
centuries ago, when we were rude barbarians, and their 
half-buried temples are well worth visiting in this world 
of many interesting things. 

The descendants of these tribes are the population of 
Mexico to-day. 



In the circumstances detailed in the last chapter. 
Congress met in Mexico City on April 1st, 1911. The 
President's address came as a surprise not only to his 
own countrymen, but to the world at large. 

Diaz, although never more than an earnest speaker 
without real oratory, spoke for two hours with unfalter- 
ing mien. Yet other countries — still ignorant of the 
insufficiency of the Federal Army — were puzzled by 
what seemed to be a bending of the iron will, an unlock- 
ing of the iron chains that had bound down the people 
for so many years. 

Nobly the octogenarian mind had accepted the posi- 
tion, and broken through the limitations of advancing 
years and the bondage of that law of continuity to which 
all human beings are prone to become enslaved. 

The dominant note from beginning to end in the career 
of General Diaz was " the good of his country," and 
never had he met the situation more bravely than now. 



64 MEXICO 



To summarize briefly, he boldly declared against the 
re-election of officials ; he promised the safeguarding 
of the suffrage of citizens by legislation, the correction 
of abuses by local officials, and the division of large 
properties called haciendas. This last measure was, 
perhaps, the most pressing of all. The land is always a 
question of vital importance to a country, and few 
countries are so far advanced in this matter as Germany, 
where property was broken up and settled once and for 
all a hundred years ago. Few are so retrograde on the 
land question as Mexico. 

It had been hoped that these promises would appeal 
to the peons (peasantry), . who were then augmenting 
Madero's forces, even if they had no effect on Madero 
and his immediate following. But news from the north 
became more and more disquieting, and some ten days 
later the Government went a step further, and laid 
peace negotiations before the insurgent leader. 

Madero refused to entertain them. 

Meanwhile, although after diplomatic representations 
the United States had withdrawn the battleships from 
Mexican waters, the x\merican crisis had by no means 
passed. In fact, there were times when it was ren- 
dered more acute by the incidents of war on the frontier 
— ^trivial in many cases and yet provoking attention. 
Bullets fired on Mexican soil killed American subjects 
in their own townships on American soil, and sometimes 
Americans fell into the hands of the Federal troops. 

Just at the moment the rebels' plan seemed to have 
been to possess themselves of those northern frontier 



CRISIS 65 

towns which commanded the railways. Disastrous 
engagements were fought in Agua Prieta, which placed 
the American town of Douglas in East Arizona under 
fire, and President Taft strongly notified both the 
Mexican Government and the rebels that no more 
skirmishes must be fought so near the frontier. 

So numerous had the insurrectos become that they 
were fourteen to one Federal (Diaz party) in the Juarez 
{El Paso) district ; and in defiance of Diaz' proclamation 
of martial law, six railway bridges near Ciudad Porfirio 
Diaz (Eagle Pass) were destroyed. It must be remem- 
bered that Mexico is divided from the States by the 
Rio Grande, crossed on the north by the Central 
American Railway at El Paso, on the east by three 
other Mexican railways at Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, at 
Laredo, about a hundred miles further south, and at 
Matamoros, about twenty-five miles from the coast- 
line of the Gulf of Mexico. 

The north was in a state of revolution, the south was 
out of control by the Government. 

Things were truly desperate. 

The outside w^orld was blaming Diaz for this state of 
disorder, and stocks and shares were fluctuating badly. 

The time had come when even the resourceful and 
undaunted spirit of General Diaz had to reveal the 
weakness of the Mexican Army to the world at large. 
He carefully shielded Limantour and his economies 
and took the blame on himself. The fact was Liman- 
tour had persuaded him to over-economize, as Haldane 
persuaded Asquith to make certain military reductions 

5 



66 MEXICO 



— and Mexico first, and England later, thought them- 
selves too secure to require to continue armies of any 
magnitude. 

The Diaz Government issued an appeal to loyal sub- 
jects to enter the Army as volunteers for six months. 

This was its final confession of incapacity, and to the 
revolutionaries, headed by Madero, it brought full 
knowledge of their own power. 

Mexico indeed provides an object lesson to her 
neighbours that the truest surety for peace is the 
preparation for war in efficient naval and military 
equipment. The optimism of 1910, together with that 
always fatal Manana of the Latin races, had wrought 
havoc, and the position of gringos (foreigners) in a 
country held by revolutionaries became dangerous. Six 
or seven years later this undesirable hatred increased. 

The Government at Washington was brought face 
to face with new difliculties. It was futile to demand 
protection for its many subjects from a powerless 
Government, yet their own outside interference might 
involve instant massacre by the lawless and excited 
insurgents. It was at this juncture that, as mentioned 
earlier, a rumour reached the White House of an 
alliance between Mexico and Japan, which allowed the 
latter to use Mexican waters, and was regarded as a 
menace to the United States. The rumour, untrue as it 
was, served its purpose of adding to the complications 
of the moment and so sounded the first German note. 

So secure were the insurrecios that they evacuated 
their newly acquired position in Agua Prieta, on the 



CRISIS 67 

Arizona frontier, where they were becoming short of 
ammunition and provisions, and dispersed, eventually 
to join the forces concentrating on Juarez. 

At this juncture peace negotiations were again opened 
with Seilor Madero, who, with his father, met Seiior 
Hernandez, the semi-official representative of the 
Government, and while the insurgents were demanding 
the surrender of the town of Juarez, a four days' armis- 
tice was declared. This was on April 24th, 1911, and 
it was extended to another five days, but only had force 
with that part of the insurgent army under the personal 
command of Madero. 

It was an anxious time in Mexico City, which was 
compared to an armed camp. No one was really safe 
in the city. At the British Legation a hundred British 
subjects were domiciled in the house and the garden. 

The British Legation is situated near the beautiful 
Pasio de la Rijorma and within fifteen minutes' walk 
of the Rosque of Chapultepec. It was designed and 
built by Mr. Charles Johnson, an English architect who 
has lived many years in Mexico. It stands in its own 
grounds, and is a comfortable house. The main feature 
is the spacious entrance hall, which corresponds to the 
courtyard in a Mexican house, but which is roofed over 
with glass and floored with beautiful Mexican tiles. The 
house was begun by Sir Reginald Tower before the 
dSbdcle, and was first occupied by Sir Francis and Lady 
Strong. During the revolution, at the time of Madero's 
downfall, the large window on the staircase was broken 
by a shot. There was a gun placed in front of the 

5* 



68 MEXICO 

Legation, which attracted in a very unpleasant fashion 
the fire of the revolutionists. Legations are sacred as 
regards fire and the windows were protected by nothing 
better than light wooden shutters. When Sir Lionel 
Garden took possession he profited by the experience of 
his predecessor and had steel shutters put up, for, be it 
remembered, every legation is under the laws of the 
country it represents, and the people who seek shelter 
within its walls have the right of protection. Wooden 
shutters were no protection against chance stray bullets, 
and the Legation was filled not only with Britishers, 
but Americans and others. 

A demand from Germany to the Mexican Govern- 
ment to protect German residents in Cuernavaca, a 
heavenly spot only forty miles distant from the capital, 
merely emphasized to the Ministry its own weakness. 

In the early days of May Madero demanded the 
immediate resignation of Diaz and Corral, and the 
appointment of de la Barra as temporary President 
until a General Election should take place. This was 
the result of a conference of the rebel leaders, who 
refused peace until these demands should be satisfied. 

Sefior Carbajal, who acted for the Federal Government, 
refused to send their decision to Diaz, as he alleged 
he was not in El Paso for that purpose. Therefore, on 
May 6th, peace negotiations were declared at an end, 
and riots took place in Mexico City. 

Diaz again issued a manifesto declaring that he 
would resign the Government " as soon as he was 
conscientiously convinced that there was no fear of 




.Mi.^^^^^^H*:^j(^ 



:^?S8»*i6?^aSs^jp / . 



Ettect of bombardment on an Old Church. 



[To face p. 69* 



CRISIS 69 

the country's being plunged into anarchy by his act." 
But the old President appealed to the country in vain 
for help towards peace. It was the first appeal of his 
that had ever been refused, and sounded the death-knell 
of his power. It hurt him. He could not believe it. 
He was as one struck dumb under the blow. 

Without doubt General Diaz knew that socialism, 
revolution, or whatever one might like to call the modern 
unrest so prevalent to-day in the world of half-educated 
humanity, was inevitable. He knew it, and had known 
it for a year or more, but if he had retired on the eve of 
trouble the world would have said he did so to avoid 
being drawn into the turmoil, and the world would 
have blamed him. He remained in office not because 
he wished it, but because he considered this was the 
right thing to do. He honestly believed that by such 
action he would smooth matters over for the Govern- 
ment, and that the country would settle itself more 
easily under him whom they knew, and whose slightest 
wish had been obeyed as a command, than would be 
possible under a new and untried President. His 
country always came first with General Diaz. His own 
personal feelings were always put aside. He had said 
he would retire, but there is no denying he was over- 
persuaded, and made the great mistake of his life by 
retaining office. 

It seems a poor return for the sacrifice he had made by 
standing for the eighth time that such disaster should 
befall him. Looking back, one sees how extra- 
ordinary was the want of discrimination of the people 



70 MEXICO 



in the choice of Madero as ruler. The tentative way in 
which stay-at-home Diaz tried to find a successor, 
surrounded as he was by conflicting interests and always 
influenced by the far-travelled Limantour, dwarfed 
his vision. He did not insist on a successor being 
formally appointed. 

How few people retire in full glory unless the friendly 
hand of death cuts the strings. Once the edifice 
shows signs of falling the man in command begins to 
patch. The more he patches the worse the dilapida- 
tions, and the whole house falls about his ears and buries 
his success in ungrateful ashes. 

The last ill-advised deed wipes out years of success. 
Alas and alack ! 

There is no doubt that the old President, hale and 
vigorous as he was, placed too complete reliance upon 
Limantour. When urged to take action he would 
put off doing so until Pepe's return, Limantour at the 
time being in France. Finally the latter was tele- 
graphed for, and on his way back stopped at New 
York to consult with de la Barra. Somehow or other 
Senor Limantour had a firm conviction that the United 
States would intervene — and left New York under that 
haunting impression. On his way home he stopped 
to see the Maderos, and on arriving at Mexico City 
he wildly advised Diaz to resign immediately in order 
not only to stop further bloodshed, but to hinder what 
he considered the disastrous intervention of the States. 
Diaz — suffering terribly at the time from illness — con- 
sented, and was furthermore persuaded to sail for 



CRISIS 71 

Europe instead of retiring to his own State of Oaxaca, 
where he knew the people would be loyal to him. Had 
he done the latter the revolution might have ended 
differently ; for, faced by Madero's broken promises, the 
country quickly gave up its dream of a millennium, and 
might again have turned to the old master for advice. 

Madero's power, however, was no more assured than 
it had been in the early daj'^s of the rebellion ; he could 
inflame but not command, and in spite of his armistice, 
fighting had gone on in Juarez. Then, when negotia- 
tions were at an end, he authorized a vigorous attack 
on that besieged city ; and with his outworks destroyed 
and hope blighted, General Navarro and his troops 
surrendered to the insurgents. 

Together with this news there came to Mexico City 
tidings of disturbances in Oaxaca, owing to the appoint- 
ment of Seiior Felix Diaz (the nephew of the President) 
as Governor, for the people of the State had desired 
Seiior Benito Jvidrez, son of the renowned Juarez, to 
take that office. 

Madero had partly accomplished his object — the 
whole country, save three States, each as big as, or 
bigger than, Wales, was in revolt. 

He held a conference in Juarez, on the Bio Grande, 
which he proclaimed his capital, and appointed a 
Provisional Government. General Navarro was re- 
leased on parole, and many of his men joined the rebels. 
But this self-appointed President experienced an 
abrupt interruption in his arrangements. Within a 
few hours of the capture of the city he was himself under 



72 MEXICO 



arrest. Orozco, who had borne much of the burden 
and heat of the struggle in the northern Rio Grande 
region, demanded money and food for himself and his 
men, who were ragged and ill-fed. Madero declared he 
had none to grant, and he was seized as a prisoner. But 
on appealing to the rebels he was released, and in front of 
the assembled troops, Madero and Orozco shook hands, 
the former declaring that as his subordinate had effected 
such good service, the incident should be forgotten. 

Critical events had followed each other in quick suc- 
cession. Desultory fighting was progressing on all 
sides, in some places assuming quite alarming pro- 
portions. Peace negotiations were again opened, and 
ended in proposals by the Government of Mexico 
that Diaz and Corral should resign within a month, 
that Sefior de la Barra, who had left his post as 
Ambassador to Washington, should be Provisional 
President, and should elect some well-known General 
to take his place as Minister of War, while Madero and 
he conjointly should appoint the remaining members 
of the Cabinet. 

These concessions obtained a cessation of hostilities, 
and Madero proclaimed peace throughout the country. 
But fighting continued after this announcement, the 
rebel leaders Figueroa and Zapata still nursing the 
ambitious hope of leading a victorious rebel army into 
Mexico City, just as Diaz had himself done so triumph- 
antly on June 21st, 1867. To the very end of his revolu- 
tion Madero lacked control. 

Two years previously President Taft and President 



CRISIS 73 

Diaz had met, with great official and real personal cor- 
diality on both sides, in the Custom House at the frontier 
at Ciudad Juarez, This had been a wise diplomatic 
move to quell any little ill-feeling that might still exist 
between the two Republics. On May 21st, 1911, out- 
side the same building — now dramatically riddled with 
the bullets of the rebels — Madero signed the pre- 
liminary articles of peace, together with the representa- 
tives of the Government, and a pledge was given for 
the immediate retirement of the old President and the 
Vice-President ; otherwise, Madero said, he would not 
be able to keep the people in hand. 

As with so many of these self-appointed leaders, there 
was a tendency to a " one-man " government. Madero 
was overflowing with confidence in his own powers — 
which, strangely enough, he thought in some weird way 
were inspired by Heaven — when he bade farewell to his 
men. 

Towering above him, as he spoke, was a plaster statue 
of Justice, whose uplifted hand had been shot away in 
the siege. The scorching rays of the sun — as a veritable 
finger of Heaven — glinted on the newly broken, rough- 
ened surface of the maimed limb, while he told his 
followers that the war had been conducted against 
tyranny, and that its fruit would be liberty. He wisely 
added : " Many things must yet be done before the 
principles for which we fought are within our grasp." 

Madero was an idealist, a dreamer ; educated, and 
yet not educated enough to know his own limitations 
and his country's requirements. He was a far higher 



I 



74 MEXICO 



class of man than Carranza, but wielded a weaker hand 
and knew little of soldiery. 

The poor old President, far away south in Mexico 
City, went through days of mental torture and anxiety. 
He was racked with fear for his country and love for 
his homeland. He shrank from leaving her in such 
turmoil. He believed he could still bring about order. 

Then it was that President Diaz, and, of course, his 
underling Corral, decided to resign on May 25th, but, 
irritated at even one day's ])ostponement, the mob 
marched through the streets of Mexico City in open riot. 
One body of the rioters reached the front of the Munici- 
pal Palace, in that great open square where the fine old 
Cathedral stands, and were only aj)peased after troops 
and police had fired upon them, some being killed and 
others wounded. What history that old square could 
tell ! Here stood, centuries ago, the great Aztec 
Temple, supposed to cover with its chapels twenty acres 
of ground, surrounded by the famous " Wall of Ser- 
pents." This wall had at measured distances enormous 
serpents' heads, rudely carved, probably at least two 
hundred and eight in number. 

The modern half-bred Indian mob visited the simple 
home of General Diaz in Cadena Street, and fired pistols 
against its walls as he lay there ill. What a home of 
love and happiness was that house in Cadena, a home 
of simple comfort and great joy, an ideal home, in fact. 
Three or four sitting-rooms quietly furnished in good 
taste — a small room used as a museum, mostly for 
military relics, and flowers, which the chatelaine dearly 



CRISIS 75 

loved, on every side. There all was peaec round the 
chair of a sick man — old, over-wrought and ill. Ill, 
for almost the first and only time in all his strenuous 
life. 

[ Madero, in the provinces, ordered a resumption of 
hostilities, while the President, almost delirious with 
pain, which had crept up his head, and afflicted with 
intense blood-poisoning, was now helpless in bed. 

The blood-poisoning began with toothache. He had 
almost never seen a dentist, but at eighty he had to go 
to one. An abscess was the verdict — a very bad 
abscess. The tooth must come out under an anaesthetic 
as soon as an anaesthetist could be found. 

" Take it out now," said the President. 

" I can't— it wouldn't be safe." 

" Take it out now ! " grunted the man of four-score — 
and clutching the arms of the chair tightly, he insisted 
on having the extraction there and then. The work 
was done, but some of the jaw came away with the 
root. Back home he went. The whole side of his 
head, from jaw to eye, from ear to nose, was in a 
terrible state of inflammation. It was a horrible 
predicament. He lay in such pain that he was hardly 
able to speak, and in spite of the care of his devoted 
wife, and the solicitude of his son, Colonel Porfirio 
Diaz, it was impossible to keep from him the traged)'' 
of affairs outside. 

Thus it was he was late in sending in his resignation, 
and thus it was the tumult of discontent almost burst 
forth. Naturally the populace thought his indisposition 



76 MEXICO 



but a bare excuse ; they had never known their Presi- 
dent ill ; they were told by the insurgents it was a 
feint. Instead of which it was a serious illness, so 
much so that it left him stone deaf in one ear for the 
rest of his life. 

On the afternoon of May 25th, 1911, Diaz formally 
resigned the Presidency of the Mexican Republic, and 
Senor de la Barra became Provisional President pending 
the new election, which was fixed for October, and 
Madero was the hero of the hour. 

. President Diaz' resignation was put into the following 
words : 

" Sirs, 

" The Mexican people who so generously 
and bountifully honoured me once, who during our 
international war acclaimed me its chieftain, who 
have patriotically co-operated with me in the work of 
developing the industry and commerce of the Republic, 
of establishing the national financial credit and inter- 
national respect with a proper place before the friendly 
nations of the world ; that same people, Sirs, have 
rebelled and military armed bands are claiming that 
my presence in the exercise of the supreme Executive 
Power is the cause of the insurrection. 

'* I know of no act of mine which might be the cause 
of this social phenomenon, but admitting — without 
granting — that I have unwittingly been culpable, the 
mere possibility utterly disqualifies me to plead and 
pass a judgment on the accusation. 



CRISIS 77 

" Therefore, with the same regard which I have 
always had for the will of the people and in accordance 
with Article 82 of the Federal Constitution, I appear 
before you, the Supreme Representative Assembly of 
the Nation, and unreservedly resign the office of 
Constitutional President of the Republic with which 
I was honoured by national vote, especially when I 
see that, were I to retain it, I should as a consequence 
become the cause of the bloodshed of Mexicans ; the 
credit of the country would disappear, its treasure 
would be sacrificed, the national sources of production 
would be ruined, and international complications 
would be probable. 

" I hope. Gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, 
that when the passions accompanying every revolu- 
tion have subsided, a more serene and careful study, 
supported by facts, will awake in the national conscience 
a correct judgment, which will allow me to die carrying 
in the depth of my soul a token of the appreciation of 
that devotion which all through my life I have had 
and will continue to have for my countrymen. 

" Respectfully, 

" PoRFiRio Diaz." 



No thinking person can ever be happy. Happiness 
is for the cabbage that does not even know the cauli- 
flower is more beautiful than he. The more we think 
the more we realize our imperfections and aspire 
to higher things. We don't deserve happiness and 



78 MEXICO 

certainly very few people ever attain it. They are 
either too stupid to know when they should be happy, 
or too ambitious for betterment and therefore fail to 
grasp beatitude. 

One suffers and suffers and suffers, until one can 
suffer no more, and then life becomes endurable. Only 
in the irresponsibility and selfishness of youth, does life 
bring any real happiness. True happiness, which 
means joy of living and peace of mind, is dearly bought 
through the suffering that really brings indifference. 
Indifference is peace. 



CHAPTER V 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 



THE Cabinet Meeting at which Diaz' resignation 
was announced had to be held at his private 
home. It was most pathetic. The aged 
President lay in bed in an adjoining room, with swelled 
neck and face, and suffering as we have seen. Only 
one member of the Cabinet entered the sick room. 
President Diaz was able to speak but a few words, 
yet declared he would not leave the country ; he had 
no reason to fear his countrymen. When later he 
learned that peace would probably be more quickly 
restored if he went away, he put personal feelings aside 
and left Mexico. No sacrifice was too great for this 
indomitable man in such a crisis of his beloved 
land. 

No one — not even the most socialistic malcontent 
■ — clamoured for Diaz' life, but his decision to leave 
Mexican shores in the interest of the country, and of 
Madero in particular, was an admitted necessity. 

So unruly had the country become that for two or 
three weeks brigands had been plundering trains, and 
serious attacks were common. 

79 



80 MEXICO 

The whole situation was lamentable. The people, 
despite General Diaz' promise to leave, would not wait. 
They wanted more, they wanted his immediate retire- 
ment from the land of his birth, the land he had only 
once in all his eighty years of life left for more than a 
few days. 

Worry, anxiety, distress at the desertion of some 
of his friends, this sudden illness, all weakened and 
saddened him. Poor Diaz ! It was 9.30 at night when 
all the resignation business was settled. Madame 
Diaz, who had been waiting about since seven with some 
food, hoped he would have a meal and then go to 
sleep. She was horrified when she saw him ; his face 
was more swollen, and he looked very, very ill. He 
could not touch food, and all that night he walked 
about in his agony. He nearly died, nothing but his 
strong constitution pulled him through ; the physical 
pain was intense, the mental agony at leaving the 
land was extreme. He could not sleep. He was like 
a man demented with grief and pain, but once he 
decided to leave, and had really persuaded himself 
that the impossible had happened and that his presence 
was disturbance and not, as it had been for well-nigh 
forty years, pacification, he wished no time to be 
lost. 

As soon as the settlement was made, the question 
arose : How should his departure be accomplished ? 
The wire between Mexico City and Vtra C?'uz had been 
cut : Madero's rebels had been plundering the trains, 
robbing the mail bags and the passengers, almost 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 81 

stripping them in their fury. How, therefore, was a 
train to travel to Vera Cruz ? 

Hurriedly a few men were called together, a quick 
conference took place ; it began at 10 p.m., by an hour 
after midnight all was arranged, and three hours later, 
in the dawn of a new day, the little Presidential party 
were on their way. Two Mexicans and four English- 
men contrived a scheme, and a very clever scheme it 
was. It was known that an English Foreign Office 
bag had to be sent through to London. Means of 
transport have always to be found for any Foreign 
Office bag — it is a sort of sacred organ in every land — 
and accordingly the line could be patched and mended 
for this particular political article to be transferred to 
Vera Cruz. 

The interval between ten at night, when the final 
decision was taken, and four in the morning, when 
the Diaz family really departed, did not give much 
time, but through the ingenuity and hard work of the 
six men concerned everything was arranged, and while 
the city was sleeping peacefully its President was 
leaving, perhaps for ever. This was not a case of 
running away. The old man knew perfectly well that, 
whenever he left, if the people knew, there would be 
a demonstration in the city, mostly in his favour ; but 
these political demonstrations often end in bloodshed, 
and he was anxious that nothing of the kind should 
happen on his account. All this was avoided by his 
hasty flitting. 

Two Mexicans assisted in his departure, and, 

6 



82 MEXICO 

stranjje and romantic as it sounds, the most 
prominent of the two was the man of whom 
we were to hear so much Uiter — viz., General Huerta 
himself, whom the ex-President selected as his 
escort. 

Huerta behaved as a gentleman. He and Diaz did 
not see eye to eye, and this man who was to assume 
for a time much of Diaz* power was antagonistic to 
him in many ways. They say the Turks fight like 
gentlemen — and th(^ semi-Indian Huerta acted like 
a gentleman. He did everything for the sick 
octogenarian's comfort, happiness and safety. He 
hclpeil to n\ake the arrangements, tvnd he helped to 
carry them out. He did all in his power to let his old 
chief leave his country as its old chief. Huerta's own 
leaving, touched upon in a later chapter, was also a 
very simple affair, and much water was to pass under 
the bridges before that. 

" On an Englishman's honour," is an old Spanish 
proverb nnieh used in Mexico, where promises are 
easily made in that flowery Spanish language, and as 
easily broken. 

Huerta gave his woixi and he kept it. 

In the small houi-s the wife of General Diaz' son, 
with her ten-days-old baby, was dragged from her bed, 
and told to dress and prepare to leave for Europe. 
This she did. with her husband and five small sons 
and two nui"ses. No man was ever more devotedly 
attended than the aged President ; his son would not 
leave him, neither would the younger man leave his 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 88 

Avilr. \\\\o plui'Uily tloU'rininiHl lo laUt" [\\c risk -aiul 
risk it was, nltrr ten tlnys Diily. 

The I'rosiiKMit aiul liis lamily \valki>(l out into the 
starlit iui»hl. 

They lofl ovorythinp; just as tlu\v had livid tlioro. 

And 

They nc\cv saw any of llu'ir treasures again. 

Many of llu' Iiouuvs oi' Mc^xii-o C'ily wvvc loolrd, 
robbed, pillagt>d ; anil ultliDuj^h [he old President's 
was left uudislurhed Cor many a louy; day, il linally 
became a publie olliee. 

The Diaz })arty arrived in Paris with but lew trunks 
or goods, and i( was months before a few more followed 
them; the treasures, lutMiunloes and little joys of that 
happy C(t(l(tHi iiome never eanie, and the old President 
and his wifi> niver had a jjonie of their own buikling 
again. Hotels or a furnished Ihit was all they ever 
knew. They, the most ln)me-livini:;', divoliil eouple 
in the world, left everything behind in IMixieo except 
their tleep love for one another. 

1 have seen hin) sit at the Paris window waiting for 
his wife's return, and the smile of joy cover his face 
when slu> enleri>d. That was the softer side of the 
stern oUi warrior, a side but few kni'w. 

His son, Colonel l\)rfirio Diaz, gave uj) his engtheer- 
ing business and his honu^ to aeeompany iiis father 
to FiUroj)e. Mailanu* Diaz' two sisters K>ft at the 
sami' tinu\ TInii' trains eonveyeil the pari}. In 
the Ihsl weri> Federal troops, in the second General 
Diaz and his family, in the third more troops. Guns 

0* 



84 MEXICO 



were fixed to the front of the engines, otherwise only 
the first and last trains were really armed with 
soldiers, and the car in which Diaz and his family 
were travelling carried no arms, save for a rifle or 
two. 

When on the journey to the coast the rebels rushed 
the line, as had become their wont, for pillage ; they 
had no idea that it was an armed train passing, or 
that the President was there. They merely came 
with the idea of murder and plunder, which they had 
been enjoying for weeks, and were badly surprised 
when the first shot was fired upon them. Still greater 
was their surprise when, as they deployed to attack 
the held-up train, soldiers descended from the front and 
back coaches. At the first shot. General Diaz rose to 
his feet, his eyes flashed, his nostrils dilated, all the old 
warrior rose within him in spite of his sufferings. He 
commanded everyone in the saloon — ^they were mostly 
women and children — to lie flat on the floor for safety, 
and then quickly, although unarmed, rushed through 
the door himself to the scene of action. 

In an instant young Colonel Diaz was out of the 
saloon, and, with his father standing beside him, the 
son of the old veteran fired his pistol upon the leader 
of the gang, at long range. In a flash the leader lay 
dead, for young Diaz, like his father, was a steady 
shot. The rebels were utterly taken aback. No cable 
had communicated the passage of the train, no signal 
had been given to indicate that it contained the late 
President or soldiers ; plunder was all the pillagers 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 85 

wanted in their lawlessness, and they had faced a man 
who laid their leader low with deadly aim at unusually 
long range. 

Young Diaz shot straight, while his father directed 
operations. The insurgents were so amazed at the 
situation that, after the loss of about thirty of their 
band, they retired to the woods of that mountainous 
tropical region, leaving a box of gold behind them, 
which they had stolen from a former train load. This 
the Diaz party distributed among their Federal soldier 
guard. 

The Presidential train continued on its way. 
Arriving at Vera Cruz, the party stayed for two days 
at the house of an Englishman. 

So little had Diaz' departure been expected in the 
capital that, on the morning following his resignation, 
Limantour, with five other ministers, called at his 
home in Cadena for a conference — telegraphic com- 
munication had long been broken be it remembered — 
only to find he must already be nearing Vera Cruz. 
The ex-President was still suffering agonizing pain, 
and saw no one. The house was carefully guarded by 
troops, and naturally the English colony (the most 
important in Vera Cruz) were most anxious about him. 
Not wishing the old leader to leave his native shores 
under a cloud, to slink away as though ashamed, they 
proposed to him a drive through the city, as a means 
of giving him a proper send-off. 

" I'll drive, certainly," he replied, " drive anywhere 
you like ; and let it be in an open carriage." 



86 MEXICO 

Carriages are rarely seen in the streets of Vera Cruz, 
and the use of one excites comment, so in the cir- 
cumstances to drive was somewhat dangerous. As 
the ex-President pursued his way, the crowd grew 
larger. Some shouted for Diaz, a few threw stones 
and eggs and broke shop-windows, but all the while 
the throng increased until its very size portended 
danger. The invalid bowed to left and right, appa- 
rentlj'^ quite unperturbed, although everyone else 
suffered intense anxiety, for he had made himself a 
safe target for any well-aimed bullet rather than slink 
away from his native land. 

After passing along all" the principal streets, the 
coachman turned his horses towards the wharf, but 
there the masses of people were so dense that the 
carriage could not make headway. It was held up 
by a seething pack of humanitj'-, calling and shouting 
for, and against, the sick man inside. The horses 
became restive ; but the people crushed around in 
such a way the carriage could not move. 

It was a critical moment — everyone looked at every- 
one else for help. Diaz stood up. 

" Let me walk," he said, " it will be best." 

Nothing could dissuade him, so out of the vehicle he 
stepped, to push his way through the thousands and 
thousands of people. He was still so feeble from his 
illness — he had only left his bed half an hour before 
this drive — that a devoted general offered him his 
arm for support, which, in spite of his denial, he sadly 
needed. 




o 



o 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 87 



With his hat hfted, and his masses of white hair 
shining in the sunlight, he pushed his way through the 
people, unarmed, practically unattended ; almost 
alone, feeble, and leaving his country ; facing perhaps 
death, for many thought it was the last heroic effort 
of a dying man. 

Diaz was great even in his downfall. 

Nothing daunted, his head erect, he pushed his way 
on. The crowd were so impressed that they began to 
cheer ; the voices rose, and then they cheered vocifer- 
ously. When he reached the waterside the Presi- 
dential Guard was waiting for him ; in so far he was 
allowed to leave the country with all honour. He 
walked on board the German ship that was to take him 
to Europe, saying good-bye as he passed to several 
staunch friends. 

At the top of the gangway he halted, and, turning to 
face the crowd, spoke to them. His voice was so weak 
that he could only be heard by those quite near him ; 
but the gestures and earnestness of the sick man, with 
ashen face and blue lips, as he laid his hand on his heart 
and raised his eyes to Heaven as if in prayer, brought 
tears to every eye and a gulp to every throat. Those 
thousands stood spellbound. 

He went on board, tottering with illness, but refused 
assistance from others. Taking his stand at the 
captain's bridge, he invited all his old guard to come and 
shake him by the hand. Every one of those men as 
they descended from the bridge appeared utterly 
speechless with grief, and had tears in their eyes at 



88 MEXICO 

taking farewell of their President. Those rough men 
were undone, their hearts were breaking for their 
old chief, who alone remained outwardly calm. When 
he left the bridge he was seen to falter, and swayed as 
though he would fall. 



For the first few days of the voyage the Diaz family 
remained utterly alone. No one went near them, or 
even spoke to them. They were not molested in any 
way, although twice a day little bulletins were given out 
to say the ex-President had 'slept, or had taken a little 
food ; otherwise their tragic position was respected by 
all on board. 

They had the top deck to themselves. Diaz was still 
ill and in constant suffering with the abscess in his 
broken jaw. About a week later he came out of his 
cabin for an hour, and chatted with his old friends, 
and, as his health gradually improved, took an interest 
in all that was going on, apparently growing stronger 
and better every day, as he felt the relief of having 
relinquished the shackles of ofRce. 

During the voyage a low-class Cuban, travelling 
steerage, came on board. Somehow or other he 
managed to escape from his own part of the ship, and 
mingled amongst the first-class passengers, where he 
spent an hour telling the five charming grandchildren of 
the ex-President (kindly omitting the infant) of the 
wickedness of their grandfather. Terrible stojies of 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 89 

iniquity and crime were poured into their ears, until a 
steward who understood some Spanish overheard the 
conversation, which he reported at once to the captain. 
Such treachery was almost unbelievable, for the Cuban 
had even suggested dire punishment for the children if 
they reported what he said ; but soon it was discovered 
that this was not the first time the insinuating gentleman 
had related to the little boys really wonderful tales of 
the bloody deeds and wickedness of both father and 
grandfather. 

Naturally the man was afterwards more strictly 
watched in the steerage, but when the ship afterwards 
touched at a Spanish port he managed to give a lot of 
bogus information to the Press, relating many ridiculous 
and invented interviews with Colonel Diaz. This 
villain had, however, never spoken one word either 
to General Diaz or his son during the whole 
voyage. 

Diaz got a great reception at the Spanish ports touched 
at on the voyage, notably at Santander, where King 
Alfonso sent the Marquis of Polavieja with a crowd of 
important people to do the veteran homage. They 
filled the saloon with glorious flowers, one huge wreath 
bearing a satin ribbon with the words — " From the 
Spaniards who have lived in Mexico." 

Within an hour of his landing in France Diaz was 
seeking the best specialist's advice for his car. He was 
still much weakened in health from pain, and unhappy 
in his mind about his beloved land. 

He had been in Paris but a day or two when he heard 



90 MEXICO 

that his faithful secretary, who had left Mexico but a 
few weeks before on account of illness, was dying in 
Germany. 

" He must not die without my shaking him by the 
hand," he said, " he has always been a faithful friend 
to me." 

And accordingly this old gentleman of nearly eight)'^- 
one, who was himself still ill, packed up and went off 
at once to Nauheim, to sit beside the death-bed of his 
secretary. 

The Press of many lands was sympathetic at his fall 
and full of praise of his former success ; and one and all 
agreed that Diaz was a very rich man, would buy a 
palace, and end his days like a prince. 

Instead of which Diaz was a very poor man. Everji^- 
one round him had made money. He might have been 
as rich as Crcesus himself, but he never took a bribe, 
never accepted a gift. 

He retired in poverty — with honour. 



In every small town in Mexico the Town Hall dis- 
played a large picture of Diaz — good, bad or indifferent 
in workmanship, generally the latter. There they 
hung — where are they now ? 



For a moment let us turn from Mexico to China. 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 91 



Had Yuan-shi-kai lived he might have become as 
great a ruler as Diaz, but he died of a broken heart at 
the age of fifty-seven. Here was similarity between the 
two. Diaz was old, but he was physically strong, and 
grief that all his life's work should have been of so little 
avail broke his heart also. 

As to the Chinaman, he was young and vigorous. He 
had not yet accomplished his task : he had only just 
begun to make his influence felt — and then came a dead 
stop. He could go no further. The old prejudices of 
the Manchus and the new prejudices of the revolu- 
tionaries crushed him ; and he sank down, literally 
overpowered, to die. 

Yuan-shi-kai stepped into power in 1911, being elected 
President on the fall of the Manchus, as Diaz stepped 
from power. The Prince Regent had " disgraced " 
him but two years before, and then actually called him 
out of his retirement to help in saving the falling Manchu 
dynasty — and to his honour be it said, he made an effort 
to that end. 

As a matter of choice Yuan would have preferred a 
constitutional monarchy with himself as Prime 
Minister ; but in place of that, China, and especially 
Southern China, settled upon a Republic, of which 
Yuan was made President in 1912. For three years he 
successfully led the nation in that capacity. He was 
strong in personality, and very cruel ; masterful to a 
degree, and so intolerant of opposition that he failed 
to humour the representative party in parliament. 
Yet quite early in the day he showed that he could rule 



92 MEXICO 

China and was ambitious for the country's welfare. 
Under his presidency China made good all her foreign 
obligations. He was strongly pro-British in senti- 
ment. 

In 1918 Yuan went and worshipped in the Temple of 
Heaven at Peking, a sacrosanct fane reserved for the 
Emperors. To the Chinese people this was the first 
indication of his views and intentions as to becoming 
their Emperor — and he was not opposed. Into this 
temple no foreigner was ever allowed to enter, but only 
the sacrificial personages ; and the worship, conducted 
in the middle of the night, was one of the most wonderful 
and picturesque ceremonies in the world, in which the 
Emperors had always represented Heaven and Earth. 

President Yuan was supported by a large party, and 
went on steadily until 1914. 

Then a change befell : the President began an agita- 
tion for himself to be made Emperor. In the same year 
came the rebellion against him under General Tsai Ao. 
Yuan died in 1915. 

The President and would-be Emperor used to seat 
himself upon a throne, and arrange the costumes to be 
worn at his inauguration as Emperor. He issued 
decrees and acted in every way as though Emperor 
in fact, and was even addressed as such. But Japan 
would not have allowed this usurpation, and the 
Foreign Powers generally refused to address him as 
Emperor. 

Yuan-shi-kai played for the highest of stakes — and 
lost. As President, we have seen, he succeeded for a 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 98 



time, only to fail latterly. He had the army with him, 
but would not use it against his own people. Except 
in children, of which he owned six-and-twenty — two 
of them born on the same day, of different mothers — 
he was not a rich man. As regards morals, he was 
purely Eastern. Although not highly educated, he 
was a shrewd man of strong intellectual grasp. He 
well knew his own power, and refrained from over- 
stepping it — up to the time of his last fatal usurpation. 
While President, Yuan lived in the Emperor's Palace ; 
as also did his successor, a man of high principle, but 
less strong and of slighter experience. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the history of 
Yuan-shi-kai is somewhat similar to that of Diaz. Both 
were self-made men ; both became dictators, both died 
of broken hearts at the failure of years of successful 
work. Both were ambitious, poor and forceful ; neither 
spoke any foreign language, or had ever lived out of his 
own country. Both ruled millions of people, after 
bloodless revolutions that were a sudden snapping of 
long-eherishcd traditions. But Yuan was non-moral, 
Diaz intensely moral. 

By a curious coincidence — again connecting Yuan 
with Diaz — Baron Heyking, the German Minister to 
Peking at the time of the Boxer rebellion, whose lega- 
tion was blown in, was German Minister to Mexico the 
first time the writer was there. His wife, an extremely 
clever, but strange woman, wrote a book called, Brieje 
die ihn nicht erreichten, which was later translated 
into English as. Letters He Never Received. 



94 MEXICO 

General Diaz particularly disliked Baroness Heyking. 
. . . Had he any idea that Germany wished to annex 
the land of his heart ? Was the plot already in being, 
fifteen years before, for the annexation of Mexico by 
Germany ? 

Who knows ? 

The Baroness's story was a fable. It was charmingly 
done ; and that Boxer indemnity arranged by Baron 
Heyking, after being paid regularly to Germany up to 
1917, was kept back by China after her breakage of 
relations, Germany being thereby depleted to the extent 
of half a million a year — a valuable asset. This was 
a terrible ending, after her wonderful propaganda in 
every conceivable Chinese dialect that had been spread 
broadcast in China, largely through the missionaries. 

In addition to the Boxer indemnity the Deutsche- 
Asiatische Bank was receiving the interest on two large 
Anglo-German loans, the total receipts from these and 
other sources amounting to £3,000,000 annually. 

How had Germany been using this money ? 

It is believed that she employed it both for promoting 
an agitation against Yuan-Chi-jui, the former Premier, 
who favoured a declaration of war against Germany, 
and for buying over General Chang Hsun, whose attempt 
at a coup d'etat so speedily failed. Any perturbation 
in China of course tended to keep that country from 
taking the final step against the common foe of civiliza- 
tion. 

In this connection the Chinese Minister in Paris 
furnished the Journal with some interesting information. 



FLIGHT OF DIAZ 95 

Germany, he said, was by no means unconnected 
with the above coup (Titat. In the course of the fighting 
which took place between the regular troops and the 
insurgents, the latter used artillery handled by German 
gunners. Moreover a secretary of Chang Hsun frankly 
admitted the existence of German intrigues. 

Such being the circumstances, the Minister concluded 
that China would certainly declare war as soon as the 
new Cabinet was constituted. This she did in August, 
1917. 

Having already withheld the Boxer money, she now 
confiscated 40,000 tons of German shipping, cancelled 
large financial obligations to Germany, and abolished 
her extra-territorial privileges. China and Japan are 
strong supports against Russian indecision to-day. 

How strange if, m a few months' time, Mexico should 
follow suit. 



CHAPTER VI 

MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 

TO many the final retirement of General Diaz on 
May 25th, 1911, was in the nature of a thunder- 
bolt. It was as if some great enchanter of 
bygone days had died, and all the evil spirits, carefully 
imprisoned by his word, were liberated once more to 
resume their evil ways on earth. With fiendish yells 
these bottled sprites rose ; like endless little devils 
they overspread the land. Their shrieks, their cries, 
their evil deeds devastated the country. Perhaps it 
was the very fact that the hot Spanish-Mexican-Indian 
blood had been held so long in check that caused it to 
burst forth with all the unrestrained violence of a half- 
educated, somewhat superstitious, yet brave and 
primitive people. 

It had been known for years that Diaz wished to leave 
office, but on each recurring occasion he had been per- 
suaded to retain power. It has since become known 
that at the time of the seething discontent which 
preceded open rebellion, Madero had actually signed a 
document asking General Diaz to retain office with a 
new Vice-President ; for Corral, let us repeat, was the 

96 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 97 

one person whom the whole country unanimously 
wished out of the way. This proposal Madero signed 
on the understanding that in six months' time General 
Diaz should ask for " long leave of absence," with the 
intention of not returning to power. 

Had this excellent project been carried out, far 
different would have been the fate of all concerned. The 
President of nearly eighty-one would have retired 
loaded with honours. The country would have had 
time to settle itself and seek his advice, if necessary. 
Madero, now dead, might have lived to make a lasting 
name in Mexican history. 

Thousands of lives, uselessly sacrificed, would have 
been saved. Mexico herself would not have been 
lowered to the level of a bankrupt State filled with 
rebel debauchery. 

But at the last moment the whole plan was over- 
thrown, and the deed became so much waste paper. 

Alas, and alack, if Diaz had only been wise enough 
to try one Vice-President after another until he found 
someone who really fitted the r61e and pleased the 
country, much of the subsequent disaster might have 
been averted. Once he secured a man suitable to 
govern, he should have trained that man to follow 
along his lines, to fit himself to take his own place 
eventually. Then, having asked for leave of absence, 
Diaz could have left the country for six months, and 
watched from a distance his Vice-President's capacity. 

A year from the date of Don Porfirio's departure, a 

7 



98 MEXICO 

British subject who had Hved many years in Mexico said 
to the writer : " The situation is worse, aye, a thousand 
times worse, now at the end of the year than it was 
in the first risings at the time of Diaz' departure." 
Alas, through the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth 
years it grew even worse. 

The fact is that — as outHned in the general sketch 
— with advancing years General Diaz grew more and 
more absorbed in his plans for the development of the 
country, its railways and harbours, its mines and 
exports, all of which he hoped would be fostered by 
further stability and inflow of foreign capital. He en- 
couraged expansion in everything that makes a nation 
great. Mexico had enjoyed internal peace so long under 
his own rule that he had come to look upon the position 
of affairs and the contentment of the populace as 
settled for once and all. He failed to appreciate the 
solid ground there was for discontent in the pro- 
vincial States, or to give due heed to the occasional 
explosions by which it was manifested. 

Revolution is everywhere in the air. Discontent is 
the outcome of either too much or too little education 
of the mob, whether in China, Russia or Mexico, and 
Diaz was too occupied with big things to note the 
seething storm. 

Engrossed in his own schemes for the greater 
prosperity of his country, he was losing touch with 
affairs. He looked to Corral to succeed him, and 
either did not, or would not, understand that the 
people loathed Corral. His own downfall involved 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 99 

that of Corral, who thereafter completely disappeared 
from the Mexican stage, to die two or three years 
later in Paris. 

Mexico could not break with the superstition of the 
past. She could not shake off the trammels of cen- 
turies and adopt the ethics of the present time. The 
factor of revolt was ingrown, the ideal of intellectual 
ethics was barely born and almost strangled at its 
birth. Mexico was without policy. 

Diaz, in fact, had an almost impossible task before 
him. All who were interested in Mexico looked to 
him to hold together the old garment, while tearing 
away its seamy side and renewing with many patches 
of new cloth. 

His " chief adviser," in the person of General 
Madero, had to be conciliated, but at the same time he 
had to keep at bay the jealous demands of other 
revolutionary leaders. Lawless bands of brigands 
roving through the country would require to be dealt 
with by a firm hand. Above all, the status of the 
great structure of national credit that the Diaz 
Government had established must be maintained. 

Between 1877 and 1880, it should be noted, the 
revenue of Mexico rose from $17,000,000 to $24,000,000. 
In the succeeding four years it made a further leap to 
$33,000,000. In 1907 it reached $88,000,000 : in the 
following year it amounted to $101,385,000. 

" When, after an interregnum of four years," says 
an expert, writing in 1917, " Diaz was re-elected to 
power in 1884, Mexico's debt to Britain amounted to 

/7* 



100 IMEXICO 

85,000,000 dollars. On his departure in 1911, Diaz 
left in the country's bank in gold a little over 60,000,000 
pesos (£6,000,000) which de la Barra as Provisional 
President began to spend lavishly to further his own 
political ambition. What remained of that money 
in November, at the inauguration of Madero, was 
absorbed in less than four months by the military 
operations under Huerta against the Orozco revolution. 
The bank till was already empty. 

" Huerta never gave a full account of the money 
spent, and when Madero pressed him on that score, 
Huerta only replied that he was not a book-keeper. 

'* Carranza has issued o^'er 700,000,000 pesos in paper 
money with so little discretion and thought that the 
paper money soon depreciated and became practically 
valueless. Mexico, therefore, had to revert to its 
old monetary system created by Limantour under 
Diaz, but as the present quotation of bar silver in the 
markets of the world is higher than the one which 
served as a basis for Limantour, the silver peso is more 
valuable than the Mexican gold peso, and therefore 
there is only Mexican or American gold in circulation. 
Approximately, one Mexican peso is 2s., or more 
accurately, $9.76 is equivalent to one pound sterling." 

One of de la Barra 's lirst acts as Provisional President 
was to pay off certain of the revolutionary troops. 
Some he enrolled as rurales ; others he dismissed, 
paying their expenses home ; for others he found 
employment. But peace was not to be easily restored. 




A \ illauii' si-(.'iK'. 



[To /(iiv />. 100. 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 101 

The Army was faithful to Diaz, and some of his old 
generals refused to surrender to Madero, who dealt 
summarily with them. The United States, therefore, 
still thought fit to keep large bodies of troops at hand 
in Cuba and Galveston ready for emergencies. German 
rumblings were beginning to be heard. 

Immediately on the departure of Diaz, Seilor 
de la Barra took the oath of Provisional President 
and promptly issued a decree for an election. 
I Sefior Madero was expected to enter the cajoital on 
June 7th, 1911. 

Crowds of people had arrived in the city the previous 
day. One knows so well what the scene must have 
been, for to Guadalupe, near by, one of the world's 
greatest pilgrimages takes place every winter. 
Thousands of barefooted Indian men and women 
trudging along the roads on foot, rows of carts of every 
shape and form, donkeys ridden pillion fashion, all 
bent towards Mexico City, for the excitement of the 
morrow and the welcoming of their future President. 
Every corner was filled. Many of the peons and poorer 
country people spent the June night in the streets 
and plazas, sitting round their little charcoal fires, 
clapping their hands as they fashioned their tortillas 
(pancakes which take the place of bread), and later 
lying huddled in human bundles under the shelter of 
a wall fast asleep. 

The inhabitants of the capital must have anticipated 
the morrow with mixed feelings. Many there must 
have been whose hearts ached for the hard measure 



102 MEXICO 



dealt out to the aged President and his brilHantly 
clever and beautiful wife, Carmelita ; thoughts of 
many benefits and kindnesses bestowed must have 
brought tears of gratitude to their eyes. Others — 
those who were participators in the rebellion — hailed 
the day, of course, as a festal one of triumph. Others 
there were who only looked on the scene as an 
excitement. 

But so often men are prone to make their plans as 
though they alone were the powers that govern the 
elements of the universe. They preach revolution, 
the fall of potentates, the disposition of this world's 
riches, forgetting the Great Power by Whose Will alone 
they even exist. 

What indeed was the morrow to bring forth ? 

The hours from midnight were hurrying on to dawn 
when those crowds of human beings in the streets 
were awakened by undulations of the ground, the 
opening of fissures all round them, the rumblings of 
terrific thunder beneath them. Many of those in the 
houses were hurled from their beds as the walls of the 
buildings fell ; the ancient church of San Domingo 
was wrecked ; the San Cosma barracks were shattered, 
and many people injured ; the Central Railway 
Station collapsed. Worst of all, to the superstitious, 
a wall in the National Palace cracked, and the keystone 
of one of its arches was displaced — one under which 
President Diaz had daily passed during those long 
years of office. 

Six minutes ! That was all. And yet numbers of 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 103 



people had been killed and injured. Never had there 
been such an earthquake in Mexico City, though the 
country is subject to these seismic disturbances. 

Needless to say, panic followed. Many thought the 
hand of God was raised against them for the expulsion of 
Diaz, and cowered in the gutters and moaned in the alleys. 

But the races of the South turn from grave to gay 
with a facility unknown in northern climes, and when 
Seilor Madero appeared in the evening the gaily- 
decorated streets, that in the morning had been filled 
with terror-stricken people of all grades, echoed the 
acclamations of vast crowds as they cheered their new 
leader. 

As he drove to the Palace they followed him. The 
throng was estimated as the greatest that had ever 
collected in Mexico City for a generation. 

Away in the far distance volcanic Mount Colima shot 
forth smoke and flames, and continued in full eruption 
as a reminder of the day's tragedy. 

De la Barra remained Provisional President, with 
Madero at his side, as " adviser," but actually enjo5dng 
power. Diaz had left Mexico, but the people were far 
from settled. A month had scarcely gone by when 
news of revolt in Oaxaca arrived. Labour riots broke 
out in the capital and at Orizaba, involving loss of 
life. Madero visited Puebla — about sixty-five miles 
south-east of the capital, and the scene of so many 
incidents in the life of Diaz in the days of war with the 
French — and his advent was the signal for serious 
disturbances in the town, between the Porfiristas (old 



104 MEXICO 



Diaz party) and Maderists. The Federal troops drove 
the former to the mountains. Guadalajara, about 
three hundred miles west-north-west of the capital, 
one of the most delightful old towns in Mexico, almost 
immediately joined in the disaffection. 

The fighting in Puebla continued, and there was 
much loss of life. Labour troubles arose there also, 
and local officials were arrested. In fact, so wide- 
spread was the revolt that again United States troops 
were drafted down to the far away frontier to maintain 
order. Chaos prevailed till the middle of August. The 
celebrated El Oro mines were left unworked, the men 
going out on strike, opening the prisons and releasing 
prisoners ; and foreigners thought it advisable to 
hurry into the capital for shelter. 

Francisco Madero was nominated to the Presidency 
at the end of August, but did not secure an unopposed 
return. Difficult as it is, one must remember that 
Francisco Vasquez-Gomez, who had been nominated 
Vice-President in 1910, and his brother had been two 
most prominent supporters of Madero' s rising. Fran- 
cisco was one of the Peace Commissioners at Juarez, 
and on the formation of the Provisional Government 
he was given office — with a view to the Vice-Presidency 
—and his brother was made Minister of the Interior. 
The latter disagreed with Madero, and de la Barra, 
ex-Ambassador from Washington, was dismissed, 
taking with him several of the dissatisfied revolutionary 
officers, whose leader he became. Francisco Gomez 
remained in office, but Madero ignored him, and 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 105 

nominated Seiior Pino Suarez — a Yucatan colleague 
— for the Vice-Presidency. 

General Reyes, a fine soldier and a strong man, 
had also returned from France, and was received with 
acclamation by the people. He and Madero joined 
hands — his old faithfulness to Diaz had now lapsed. 
He was to. have been reinstated as Minister of War in 
the new Cabinet, and was well beloved by the Army. 
The announcement was met by the most pronounced 
opposition. Reyes, deeply disappointed, abandoned 
all idea of taking a place in the Madero Ministry, but 
went to the other extreme, and declared his intention 
of contesting the Presidency. 

Had it not been that Reyes represented the hated 
cientificos, and was supported by those remaining, he 
might have proved a more serious opponent to Madero' s 
candidature. His meetings in the capital, however, 
were attacked by Maderists. Several encounters 
occurred between his followers and the Maderists in 
the provinces. Not wishing to throw Mexico back 
into the sorrows of civil war, Reyes announced that 
" he left his country for his country's good, believing 
that the chance of a peaceful election would be im- 
proved by his withdrawal." 

General Reyes, thereupon, retired to New York, but 
his former supporters maintained some desultory dis- 
turbances, and were successful in capturing towns 
between Vera Cruz and the capital. 

In this disturbed state of affairs the anniversary of 
Mexican independence was anticipated with some 



106 MEXICO 

foreboding. It was only a year since that brilliant 
affair when all the world had done homage, and already 
Mexico was a byword of mirth. But all went well 
except at Monterey, where agitators against the elec- 
tions raised a riot. Monterey was, of course, largely 
supported by American capital as it contained the 
great smelting works of Guggenheim and Co. 

Madero had never satisfied the rebel leader, Emiliano 
Zapata, who, thwarted in his ambition of sharing the 
distinctions accorded to the President-elect, actively 
stirred up discord, and after some guerrilla skirmishes, 
burned and pillaged several villages close to Mexico 
City. Federal troops hurried to the spot, and drove 
the Zapatistas into the hills. It was the old story of 
mistaking the dispersion of the rebels for their conquest. 
Madero seemed unaware of the trouble ahead, while, 
week by week, Zapata's following increased, bandits 
gathering around him from all parts. 

Towards the end of October, 1911, affairs in the 
capital were anything but satisfactory, while through- 
out the country the unrest was steadily increasing, 
and de la Barra realized that the sooner the actual 
President took the reins of Government, the better. 
He therefore urged Madero to take up office at once, 
and the new President was inaugurated early in 
November. De la Barra at once sailed from Vera 
Cruz on a special mission to Italy. 

The ceremony of inauguration took place in the 
new Chamber of Deputies, which was used for the first 
time for the purpose, and the President immediately 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 107 



appointed his Cabinet, Senor Ernesto Madero, hi« 
uncle, taking office as Minister of Finance. Seiior 
Pino Suarez became Vice-President. 

The election of a Constitutional President, however, 
had no effect on the strife raging in Mexico. It con- 
tinued uninterruptedly throughout the Madero regime. 
For, in fact, many of the supporters of Madero, the 
rebel, would not accept the policy of Madero the 
President — as was so often the way in Mexico. Early 
in March, 1912, Pascal Orozco took the field against 
his old chief. Orozco was a picturesque ruffian. 
Originally a mule boy, he led the trains of mules 
carrying ore from the mines to the nearest railway line, 
and in this occupation — probably the most honest 
that he ever followed — he might have lived quite 
undistinguished. He was a Mexican Indian, without 
education, but possessing courage and character ; and 
among rough men in a rough country he was able to 
impress his authority upon any of his fellow-muleteers 
who had the temerity to question it. 

How he came into the rising no one exactly knows, 
for there was no authentic news from the Mexican 
borderland. But when Madero had raised the revolt 
against Diaz, Orozco joined him. Half a bandit 
already, he probably realized that there was both 
adventure and plunder in it. Later, Orozco fought 
against his third President, Huerta. 

Affairs rapidly became very bewildering to an out- 
sider. Men with strange names came on and off the 
scenes like puppets in a marionette show. 



108 MEXICO 

■- — 

The movement against Madero was considered so 
serious that General Salas resigned from the Ministry 
of Works in order to command the Federal Army sent 
against Orozco. During the month there was plenty of 
fighting, and rebel defeats were announced from Mexico 
City at Culiacan, in Sinaloa, on March 11th, and later 
at Jimenez. It is more than probable that these 
insurrectos were independent operators in the field of 
rebellion, ready to side with any important leader after a 
victory, but busied meantime with brigandage and 
minor expropriations. The main force of rebels under 
Orozco engaged with General Salas' Federals at Carra- 
litos, north of Torreon — ah important railway junction 
in the north-centre of Mexico. The fighting lasted 
some days, beginning apparently about March 
23rd. 

The Federal Government hastily announced the 
complete defeat of the rebels, but General Salas, the 
Federal Commander, preferred to commit suicide 
rather than survive such a " victory " — which, it became 
known later, was a rout of the Federals through failure 
of ammunition. The situation was considered uncertain, 
The United States Ambassador, with President Madero's 
consent — a somewhat theoretical consent, for the con- 
signment of arms from the States to the Ambassador 
was well on its way before Madero was apprised of the 
fact — armed his nationals in Mexico City for their 
own protection, and for the defence of the Embassy. 
This was on March 29th, 1912. Two days later 
Washington endeavoured to prop the tottering 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 109 



Mexican Government by allowing Federal purchases 
of arms and munitions to be imported from the 
United States, 

Things had reached such a pass in the country that 
if a man wanted a coat or a horse he just helped himself 
— no one and no thing was safe. 

On April 2nd President Madero assured the Paris 
Matin that the reports of disturbances in Mexico were 
" much exaggerated," and presently announced Federal 
victories over rebels at Parral (April 4th) and Jojutla 
(April 9th). However, at Silva a British subject was 
beaten and robbed, and a United States citizen mur- 
dered, by rebels — or brigands. The foreign colony in 
Mexico City appealed to the British Minister for redress. 
Great Britain, of course, could do nothing, but next day 
President Taft sent a strong warning to the Federal 
Government that Am-erican property must be respected. 
The same message was addressed to General Orozco. 
President Madero fired up at this " international indis- 
cretion," and made complaint as to Washington's hold- 
ing diplomatic intercourse with a rebel. Madero 
thought to make patriotic capital out of the incident, 
but by the end of the month his own Congress was failing 
him. That body, on May 3rd, 1912, actually went so 
far as to appoint a Peace Commission to treat with 
Orozco. The rebel leader's reply was to defeat the 
Federals near Torreon. This was the brightest moment 
in Orozco's rebellion. Risings in his favour were 
reported throughout Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz and San 
Luis de Potosi, but on May 9th he quarrelled with and 



110 MEXICO 

arrested Senor Vasquez-Gomez, the most important of 
his party leaders, and Gomez' power was soon crushed. 

There is little doubt that overtures were made to 
Great Britain to take Mexico under her wing. The 
world knew the British power of colonization, which 
encouraged individual rights and expansion, and had 
England cared, between 1905 and 1912, to go forward, the 
door was open. But Britain courteously refrained from 
interfering with the United States — a more direct neigh- 
bour of Mexico — although British money predomi- 
nated, and British men and women were more 
numerous in the country, anyway in the earlier 
years. 

It was rumoured that many of the large Yankee 
business interests, notably the " oil kings," financed 
Orozco : they wanted, it was assumed, enough dis- 
turbance on the frontier to compel Taft to intervene. 
Had he done so, and had the United States taken over 
the Government of Mexico, doubtless the country would 
have become more settled and American land and 
propertj^ would have gone up in value. 

America felt as loath as we did to interfere, and Mexico 
knitted the threads of her own undoing. 

Luckily for Mexico, silver went up steadily in value 
in 1912, and the country of Montezuma, Cortez and 
Diaz made enough money by its export to keep things 
going ; for the Diaz coffers were soon depleted by 
revolution, and bankruptcy would have ensued but 
for this passing stroke of luck in silver. 

When the hopes of the Maderists seemed at their 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 111 

lowest ebb, Huerta suddenly stepped forward in com- 
mand of the Federal troops, and inflicted a decisive 
defeat on Orozco at Conejos, on May 13th. This battle 
broke the back of the Orozco-Vazquez rebellion. Their 
adherents, for the most part, dispersed throughout the 
month of June, and in July they suffered a final defeat 
at Bachimba. Huerta had beaten Orozco, who fled the 
country before the end of August. 

In passing we must remember that Huerta was a far 
higher class of man, intellectually and in education, 
than the muleteer Orozco. 

General Victoriano Huerta, the man who was after- 
wards to play so important a part in embroiling his 
country with the States, now comes to the front of 
the stage as a Maderist, or at least as a successful general 
of the Army that supported Madero ; but in the whirl 
of events in Mexico he was a partisan of the fallen 
President rather than of his successor. Diaz and Huerta 
hardly knew one another, but they had met under 
strange circumstances. When Reyes had been sent off 
in disgrace to Monterey, and was likely to give trouble, 
Diaz sent for Huerta, who was then a general, and told 
him to go north and w^atch Reyes. A few days later a 
friend of Diaz' said : 

" Did you know that Huerta is Reyes' most intimate 
friend ? " 

" No, I did not," replied the old President. 

Accordingly Diaz commanded Huerta to his presence, 
and asked if this was so. 

" Yes," he replied^ " he is a great friend of mine, but. 



112 MEXICO 



Mr. President, I appreciate my duty and m}'' own 
honour more than personal friendships." 

Huerta behaved splendidly, and Diaz was delighted. 
This was the first " duty " he had given to him. Diaz, 
as we have seen, later chose Huerta as an assistant 
in his flight to Vera Cruz. 

The brigandage of the Zapatistas near the capital 
continued to excite grave concern, and reports of out- 
rages, somewhat highly coloured, inflamed the Press in 
New York. They were serious enough in all truth. 
Zapata murdered a United States consular agent and 
fifty-four other civilians and soldiers in a train at 
Cuatla on August 12th, 1912. The very next day he 
executed 100 rurales and 100 civilians in the main street 
of Ixtapa. This truculent outlaw, dangerous as such, 
was never, however, a political force. He held the most 
fantastic views, desiring that all railways should be 
done away with, as being foreign inventions and 
opposed to the welfare of Mexico. Originally Zapata 
had been a stable-boy {cabaUangero) in the service of 
Ignicio de la Torre, son-in-law of Diaz. 

On September 2nd the Zapatistas were soundl}?^ 
beaten and scattered by a Federal force near Tenancingo. 

A review of the situation made at that time shows 
that no fewer than seventeen States were in a condition 
of unrest, owing to the presence of armed revolution- 
aries under some half-dozen different party leaders, 
whose onh?^ point of agreement was their dislike of Presi- 
dent Madero. The enforcement of the regulations 
against gun-running, as allowed under Madero, from the 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 113 



U.S.A., necessitated the dispatch of two regiments of 
American cavahy to strengthen the patrols along the 
Mexican frontier. This action on the part of Washington 
supplemented General Huerta's operations in the north, 
and by September 25th President Madero was in a 
position to offer an amnesty to the scattered remnants 
of those who had opposed him in the Orozco rebellion. 

The improvement in the political situation, begun after 
the victory of Conejos in May, lasted for some months. 

War is waged that peace may be secured. 

But then came the extraordinary coup de main of 
the President's nephew, General Felix Diaz. 

By a carefully hatched plot, Felix Diaz escaped from 
the prison of Fort San Juan de Ulna and took possession 
of the sea border of Vera Cruz. But a few days later 
he was betrayed by his followers into the hands of 
Beltran, who obtained admission under a flag of truce 
to the Municipal Palace at Vera Cruz, where Felix Diaz 
was seated. But when his arrest was ordered, the 
latter rejoined that, on the contrary, it was Beltran who 
should be arrested. Felix, however, was to discover 
too late th^t he had been betrayed, and was surrounded 
by enemies who had been bought over by Madero. 
It is said that Beltran received a large sum of money 
for this action, and that as a punishment to the troops 
who had assisted Felix Diaz one in every ten was shot. 

As Felix (not to be confounded with his cousin, 
Colonel Porfirio Diaz, or his uncle, Porfirio, the late 
President) now becomes rather prominent, let us glance 
at his personal record. 

8 



114 MEXICO 

Felix Diaz was a general in the army and a military 
engineer. He had been living since his uncle's downfall 
at Vera Cruz, his wife's original home, and soon after 
that event he retired from the army, supporting him- 
self as a professional engineer. His rising in revolt 
was due entirely to patriotic motives, but later he 
proved too weak for any serious achievement. It was a 
pity the elder Diaz did not put his nephew in office 
in place of the unpopular Corral, as, in fact, he would 
have done but for his keen sense of honour and rooted 
objection to nepotism in any shape. 

When Felix Diaz was Chief of Police in Mexico City 
he and Corral were always sparring — probably because 
the latter was aware that the Mexicans wished to see 
Felix in his shoes. Felix Diaz was President of the Old 
Students of the Military Academy ; who on a certain 
day each year dine together. Being always in touch 
with them he could count upon military support. 

Felix Diaz was reserved to a degree ; a peculiarly 
reticent man, yet a curiously good and fluent speaker 
in public. In appearance, as also in the quietude and 
silence of his mien, he singularly resembled his uncle, 
General Diaz. There is little doubt that, had Felix 
possessed half the iron courage and powerful initiative 
of his great relative, he would have held his ground in 
the autumn of 1912, eventually to become President of 
Mexico. Through lack of grit he missed his flood-tide 
— and was lost. Certainly great things were expected 
of Felix Diaz, and on landing in America in August, 
1912, the writer was beset, even at the boat-side, 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 115 

with inquiries as to his presidential chances. In Wash- 
ington, three months later, everyone was for using the 
strong hand, and for Taft sending down troops at once ; 
but, as will be seen later, not much came of all 
this vigorous talk, for Dr. Wilson stepped into the 
presidential chair. 

Felix Diaz proved an utter failure. 

Madero, as we have seen, never held control of the 
country. From the first days of his Presidency his 
downfall, sooner or later, was inevitable. It came 
in the end by means of an Army plot, followed by 
assassination. 

Madero made many promises during his rebellion 
and his subsequent fifteen months' Presidency — it 
lasted no longer. He undertook to divide up the 
haciendas and redistribute the land, and make other 
concessions for the benefit of the people. He was, in 
fact, a rank Socialist and used to go round the country 
lecturing, and making all sorts of promises to his 
followers that he could not possibly fulfil. Beautiful 
houses in the residential part of the city were to be 
theirs, and needless to say that, with so many offers, 
he had a large following. The non-fulfilment of his 
word caused great irritation. 

One of the charges Madero brought forward against 
General Diaz was the fact that he had chosen an un- 
popular Vice-President, and insisted on keeping him in 
office. No one liked Corral. Madero's own Vice 
President, Senor Pino Suarez, was certainly a better 
and less unpopular man. In other regards Madero 

8* 



116 MEXICO 

learnt nothing ; but himself repeated the mistakes 
that he had so derided in his predecessor. 

He was also understood to be favouring the Church, 
though his own party was against it, and this caused 
some distrust amongst his followers. Mexico, although 
it was supposed to have thrown off the clerical yoke 
when Church and State were separated, always remained 
strongly under the Church's influence, and, from what 
one gathered, the last few years of Diaz' regime seem to 
have added to the influence of the priests. 

The Fathers had been displaced by law, under 
Juarez, but gradually year by year they had been creep- 
ing back into power, and in many of the States, especially 
Morelia, the ordinary native believed that his priest 
carried the latchkey of heaven and hell in his pocket, 
and could send his parishioner to whichever he chose. 
After the war, moreover, the Church's influence waxed 
stronger, and, like that of certain younger Irish priests 
in their relations with the Sinn Feiners, was utilized 
for the making of mischief in the German interests. 

As time went on Madero showed distinctly that he 
believed himself inspired, in fact that, like the Kaiser, 
he was in personal communion with God. He never 
smoked, never drank strong liquor, ate sparingly, 
became an ascetic, and was always referring to his 
spiritualistic powers. At first they had appreciated his 
suggestion that he was inspired by Juarez, but he went 
too far. 

He always rode a beautiful grey horse, which after 
his death was bouofht bv the manager of the Canadian 



MADERO AND EARTHQUAKES 117 



Bank of Commerce and re-christened Pancho — after 
Madcro, who was Francisco, and " Pancho " for 
short. 

By his own family, who ruled him entirely, Madero 
was looked upon as a fool. 

A well-known man says : 

" According to the most impartial opinion in Mexico, 
Madero was a good man, sincere and thoroughly honest, 
who meant well but had not in him the stuff from 
which rulers are made. He had, besides, against 
him the Government of the United States, and had 
to fall. 

"Porfirio Diaz was a great man. He was endowed 
with those sterling qualities that go to make a true 
statesman. Unfortunately, his only fault was his 
lust of powder, which prevented him from retiring at the 
right moment. 

** In Mexico ' death to the gringos ' was a constant 
cry ; one could hear it on every side, and one had only 
to say, ' I am an Englishman,' w^hen they returned 
* Viva Inglesa.'' The Americans are regarded with 
hostility, increasing year by year." 

"^ Of course, the hatred of foreigners was perfectly 
absurd, for without foreign brains and capital and 
energy Mexico would never have risen at all, and no 
one knew that better than Diaz. He knew the inborn 
laziness and procrastination of his own people ; he 
encouraged foreign capital and by this means he made 
modern Mexico. 



118 MEXICO 

Roughly speaking : 

The railways have all been made by the British 
and Americans. 

Water works — British. 

Irrigation and sewage — ^British. 

Mines — American and British. 

Harbours — ^British. 

Oil — British and American. 

Electric light — ^British (Canadian). 

Street cars — British (Canadian). 

The large ladies' shops — French. 

Hardware shops — German. 

Restaurants run by Spaniards and Italians. 

Cloth factories — British. 
From this it will be seen that all the biggest and 
most important enterprises in the country have been 
engineered by other than natives. 

The mines were largely worked by Japanese and 
Chinese labour; and strange it was to see, as did the 
writer, sealed trains, consisting of mere cattle-trucks, 
arriving in Mexico — with Asiatic heads popping in and 
out of every window. These sealed trains were run 
right through from San Francisco in a week or ten 
days ; their content of labourers, once landed, being 
worked in colonies under military supervision. When 
the miners had fulfilled their contract and made their 
money, they were sent home in the same way, as they 
were not allowed by law to stay in the United States. 

Every nation's success is built up by the particles of 
usefulness drawn from other nationalities. 



CHAPTER VII 

DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 

BEFORE going on with the topsy-turvy history 
of revolutionary Mexico, let us take another 
peep at the ascetic, self-respecting, but defeated 
President. 

As soon as Diaz had settled in Paris he went off to 
Nauheim, as has been said, to see his dying secretary. 
Barely recovered from his own serious and grave 
illness, General Diaz saw the doctor. This doctor 
examined him most carefully : 

" Eighty-one ? " he said. " It is absurd. This man 
has the heart, lungs and liver and physique of a man 
of forty-five." The old President had seldom taken 
alcoholic drinks in his life, and was always a very 
moderate smoker. Moderation in all things was ever 
his motto. Self-indulgence was to him an abomination. 

The writer, who paid visits to the ex-President and 
Madame Diaz in Paris, both in 1913 and 1914, never 
saw six more charming children under a dozen years 
than the family of his son. Colonel Porfirio. Four 
boys, in white English sailor suits, deftly made by 
their pretty, clever mother, a dear little girl of nine, and 
the new baby, born ten days before they quitted Mexico. 

"9 



120 MEXICO 



My five little soldiers," said the boyish-looking 
father as he introduced them. For he had married at 
twenty-four his girlish-looking wife. No words can 
describe the happy family life of all these people. 
They met daily, they fed together, walked together, 
talked together ; but the poor old General was a very 
sad man. One missed his merry, twinkly smile, and his 
face in repose evinced deep, deep sorrow/ 

At the end of October, 1911, that is to say, five 
months after his " abdication," General and Madame 
Diaz unexpectedly came to London for three days. 
It was for a wedding, and they stayed at Claridge's 
as the guests of Senor Guillermo de Landa y Escandon, 
whose nephew and niece were married. At the 
ceremony the ex-President stood sponsor, and no 
one trod the aisle with statelier step than this old 
warrior. 

General Diaz landed at Dover on a Friday, and 
proceeded straight to London, the visit being strictly 
private. In spite of his eighty-one years, the 
General was looking remarkably well as he stepped 
for the first and only time upon English soil. His 
fine military carriage, courtly manner and reserved 
strength had not deserted him ; but the few friends 
who were privileged to see him were distressed to 
find that the abscess of the ear, from which he 
was suffering at the time when he retired from 
office, had left him stone deaf. No one could 
believe, to look at him, that he was more than sixty 
years of age, so vigorous and well did he appear ; but 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 121 



there was a sad look in his eyes which reflected the 
mental suffering he had gone through before he left his 
country and crossed the ocean for the first time. He 
had, however, not lost the spirit of inquiry and zest for 
knowledge ; even in exile he always wanted to know and 
see things that might be useful to his much loved land. 

"As I am to be only three days in London, it is 
a pity that one of them should be a Sunday," he 
remarked, " because I hear that I can do nothing, 
that everything is shut. There are only two things 
that I should particularly like to do — ^to see the 
King, and the Crystal Palace." 

" The Crystal Palace ? " one exclaimed in amazement. 

" Yes, because it was the beginning of all inter- 
national exhibitions, and I remember reading about 
it fifty years ago, when it created a great sensation in 
your Hyde Park." 

Further conversation showed that this dear old 
gentleman really wanted to see the place. The tele- 
phone soon got in touch with Mr. Ernest Husey, the 
official receiver at the Palace, and one of my oldest 
friends. The end of a long story is that we managed 
to have the Crystal Palace opened. Yes, that vast 
institution was specially opened on Sunday afternoon, 
in order that the old gentleman might fulfil his wish. 

When we arrived by motor at the door, we were met 
by the manager, one or two policemen, and one or 
two other men with keys. We saw the great hall 
where twenty-five thousand seated people listen to 



122 MEXICO 

the Handel Festival. We walked beneath those 
monstrous domes. We saw the wonderful gardens 
and windows ; but above all, the President was inter- 
ested in the Canadian Hall. If we had had time he 
would have examined every wood which came from 
Canada, for he discussed them all, and compared them 
with Mexican woods. He was alive to everything, 
and at the end was less tired than anyone else in the 
party. We had tea at the Club House, and then 
motored home. 

Alas, his other wish, to see King George, proved 
impossible. He wanted to do so quite unofficially, 
merely to pay his respects and show his profound 
admiration for the son of King Edward, who gave him 
his most cherished decoration, the Hon. Grand Cross 
of the Order of the Bath.* Etiquette and red tape 
forbade this, and, of course, officially he could not go, 
for he was no longer official ,* and so, although received 
with the greatest homage and cordiality by the King 
of Spain and the German Kaiser, he did not see either 
our King or Queen. Regretfully he referred to this 
two years later in Paris. 

His reception in Germany was notable, for the 
Kaiser, hearing that ex-President Diaz was on the 
Rhine, sent personally to invite him to attend the 
Grand Military Manoeuvres, descended from his horse 

* As England, unlike every other great country, had presented no 
decoration to President Diaz, the writer drew attention to the omis- 
sion in " Porfirio Diaz." Some months later King Edward sent him the 
Grand Cross through our Minister, Sir Reginald Tower, who took it 
out personally 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 128 



to shake him by the hand, remained on his feet beside 
him for an hour, walked arm-in-arm with him round 
the field, invited him to Berlin and paid him every 
courtesy. But again the old gentleman felt that his 
official days were over, so politely but firmly refused 
this official visit to the German capital. 

How different, too, was Diaz' reception in France by 
the President. The French treated Diaz as though 
he were still President of Mexico. 

When afterwards it was my hap to be in Paris with 
Don Porfirio and his beautiful, accomplished wife, the 
three of us dined together one night in the public dining- 
room of the Astoria Hotel. The Times had arrived 
from London. Showing Madame Diaz a telegram 
from Mexico, which stated that General Reyes had 
arrived in Mexico City, and had been put into prison as 
a rebel, she immediately translated the telegram to her 
husband. He looked sad and disturbed ; but all he 
said was : 

" In prison ! Poor Reyes, poor Reyes ; he cannot 
have deserved it " — and the rest of the dinner he 
hardly ate, and was silent. 

Until then he had been chatting amicably, very 
interested in all the little events of the day, in what 
we had been doing and seeing ; but unfortunately, 
this piece of news quite upset him. 

Reyes had been an old friend and companion of his 
own. They had worked together for many long years. 
Any little trouble there had been was apparently 
forgotten, and this veteran really grieved from th« 



124 MEXICO 

bottom of his heart at the position of his old comrade. 
It was quite sad to see his face. He was so quiet, 
one could not help feeling the inner workings of the 
mind of the man who had suffered so much himself, 
and whose sympathy was so deeply probed. We went 
up to their sitting-room afterwards, and, although he 
tried to throw off his grief, he only stayed a short 
time, looking at some pictures, then, pleading letters 
to write, left us. 

" I am so sorry I mentioned that telegram, Madame 
Diaz," I said ; "it was inopportune doing so at 
dinner." 

" No," she said, " it did not matter how he heard 
it. My husband is a man who feels very deeply, 
although some people think his exterior is so hard. 
As you saw, he said nothing, but he felt it." 

It was hardly necessary for her to add that, consider- 
ing one had noticed the man's expression, and that 
he had pushed every dish from him untasted from that 
moment, during the rest of the dinner. 

It was then that she said : 

" I should love to stay with you in London if we 
could only do so, and not offend other people. You 
see, we have not been in a home since we left our own 
nearly six months ago. It has been nothing but 
hotels and boxes, a thing we have never, never done 
before in all our long happy married life of eight-and- 
twenty years. 

" Yes," she continued, " our leaving Mexico was a 
terrible wrench to Porfirio ; but he felt that it was 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 125 



for the country's good and must be done at any 

sacrifice. He was so dreadfully ill that we did not 

think it possible to leave till two days later, but at 

ten o'clock at night he came into my room as I was 

undressing, and said : 

" ' Read this telegram.' The telegram said the rebels 

were arming, and stopping all trains between Mexico 

and Vera Cruz. 

" ' These rebel bands will increase,' he said. ' Shall 

we go to-night ? ' 

" ' As you wish,' I replied, for Porfirio always knows 

best. 

" We talked it over, and decided that, as we had the 

young children to think of, it would be better to leave 
in the early morning. So by eleven o'clock we had given 
our orders to start at four. I literally walked out of my 
house and left it as it stood, my clothes hanging in the 
wardrobes, and my dearest treasures on the tables and 
on the walls. We packed a few things, but far more 
important to me than packing was the state of my dear 
husband's health. He was terribly ill, and ought to 
have been properly nursed in bed ; he had a high tem- 
perature and a badly swollen face and neck, and blood 
poisoning rampant. He would not listen to anything for 
himself, and proved just as determined as he had been 
with the deatist when he would have the tooth ex- 
tracted. Safe or unsafe, he was resolved to leave 
the city. He thought it right. 

" At four in the morning our train left. 

" As you know, we were attacked. In a moment he 



126 MEXICO 

was on his feet, and with that tremendous voice of 
command which I have only heard once or twice, he 
^aid : 

" ' All the women and children must lie flat on the 
floor.' 

" This, of course, was to secure protection against 
flying bullets. The words had hardly left his lips before 
he was out of the train, standing on the ground and 
giving directions to the soldiers. The moment he 
appeared the men — the Army, you must remember, 
was with him always — cheered him to the echo. I think 
this must have frightened the insurgents, for, after a 
few shots and some little skirmishing, they all ran away. 
Or else they were ashamed of raising their hands against 
the President who had served them for so many years. 

" I cannot explain to you, dear Mrs. Alec-Tweedie, 
what I felt as I stood at the door of the carriage, for I 
was the one person who disobeyed my husband's order, 
but I felt that where he stood I must be, and that if they 
shot him they had better shoot me. I did not ask him 
to shield himself, for it would have been no use. I 
did not remind him of his ill-health, it would have been 
hopeless. Porfirio was just as determined and strong 
in sickness as in health." 

Anyone who knew the man realizes that. Those 
snorting nostrils would snort a little more, those flash- 
ing eyes would flash more quickly, for in a moment of 
peril Diaz would only become a duplicate of the Diaz 
of war. 

" When I left Mexico," the General once declared, 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 127 

" I said I would never be interviewed by the Press, I 
would never give any political opinion for publication, 
and I have strictly kept my word. Therefore, I have 
repeatedly to wire to Mexico to contradict reports they 
put in the papers as emanating from me, and to assure 
them that nothing published represents my political 
feelings unless it bears my signature." 

General Diaz was much interested in Paris. He 
admired the town, the hotels, the Bois, everything ; 
but one could easily see that his heart was always in 
Mexico, for his conversation constantly turned there. 

" Oh, for the sun of Mexico," he would exclaim, as 
the rain drizzled down, or damp fog made everything 
drear and dull. 

He used to take long walks alone — and, be it remem- 
bered, he talked no language but Spanish — for his poor 
wife found it quite impossible to keep up with his 
energetic strides as he marched along the Boulevards 
or the Bois every morning for two or three hours, by way 
of getting a " little exercise." 

He was verj'^ graciously treated by the officials in 
Paris, and when he went to visit the tomb of Napoleon, 
a General, who, strangely enough, had served in Mexico 
under Maximilian, handed him Napoleon's sword. 

" I could not place it in better hands," said the French- 
man. 

Diaz bowed, looked at it carefully, and then, reverently 
raising it to his lips, he kissed it before handing it back 
to the officer in charge. Those were the quick little acts 
of courtesy and veneration that always struck people. 



128 MEXICO 

Nearly half a century had passed since the opening 
of the Mexican-French war. It was in January, 1862, 
it will be remembered, that the French fleet first ap- 
peared off Vera Cruz, Louis Napoleon having planned to 
make Mexico a feudatory kingdom under Maximilian, 
Archduke of Austria. The French soon made a pretext 
for landing at Vera Cruz, and Felix Diaz the elder 
(Porfirio Diaz' brother) was wounded by the first shot 
fired in the campaign. General Porfirio Diaz fought 
countless engagements during the war, and long before 
the end became an accepted hero to the populace of 
Mexico. The great national struggle did not end until 
five years later, with the tragic death of the Emperor 
Maximilian at Queretaro, where he was shot, refusing to 
have his eyes bandaged, and only requesting the firing 
party to aim at his heart. 

" And who do you think was the greatest man of your 
time ? " was my question once, when we had been 
speaking of great men. 

" Bismarck," was Don Porfirio' s immediate reply. 

Apropos of a stamp on a letter, one asked him why his 
head was not on the Mexican stamps for thirty-five years. 

" How could I order my own head to be put on the 
stamps ? It was as impossible as for me to order my 
own military pension for years of service — I did neither." 

Everyone falls who lives long enough. 'Tis the 
kindly hand of death that removes people at their 
prime. Pneumonia is the greatest blessing of the old. 
Otherwise, after attaining position, power, fame, the 
envious try to pull the successful down. Success breeds 




The Author ridin;j; a^nide in Mfxii^i in IroiU "f a /aji'iU-c icnipk 




Little chapel built 



ic ^pni wliLiL- .Maxiiiiiliaii \\;i> nIhiI ai (^ueietaro. 

[To face p. 128, 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 129 

bitter enemies. Unless people retire when on the top 
— and alas, how few people realize when they are on 
the top — the structure on which they stand becomes 
undermined. The greater the man the greater his fall. 
It is easier to attain fame than to retain it. 

In his retirement Diaz became a great reader of 
military history and really studied the subject, showing 
how keenly he was the soldier before he was the politi- 
cian. It was quite amazing to see him spend two or 
three hours on end, poring over military books and 
histories, often with a map by his side. He studied 
in his retirement, at his life's end, more conscientiously 
and enthusiastically than many a young student 
working for life's examinations. 

How one used to long, when in Paris with Diaz and 
his wife, sitting quietly with them day after day, for 
the men who were writing about his cruelty, injustice, 
and a lot of nonsense of that sort, just to hear the quiet, 
dignified talk of the man himself: just to witness his 
chivalry to his wife, how he would put her furs round 
her, pick up my paper, speak a kindly word to the hotel 
servants, and so on. More conspicuously great in the 
details of life he was even in his downfall than in his 
power. He never complained — no uncourteous word 
ever passed his lips. Chivalrous, courteous, lovable 
always was this man who had ruled an unruly nation 
of hot-blooded half-breeds with an iron hand ; and all 
he said, when he heard news of rebellion, was : " My 
poor Mexico ! My poor Mexico ! " 

Those simple people whom one had seen living as the 

9 



130 MEXICO 



worshipped idols of a big country — not in great magnifi- 
cence, it is true, because they were simple folk, but still 
with their beautiful homes, their carriages, their private 
trains, their soldiers and the respect of the populace of 
a country — these people were living quietly at a Paris 
hotel in a little suite comprised of bedroom, bathroom 
and sitting-room. That hotel, the Astoria, became a 
huge Red Cross Hospital, only a year later, when the 
cruellest of cruel wars broke out. 

" One cannot bear to see you living like this, it all 
seems so changed from your magnificent position in 
Mexico." 

" Do not grieve for us," replied General Diaz. " I 
entered office thirty-five years ago a poor man, merely a 
General, with a General's pay, and thank God," he cried, 
thumping the table, " I leave office after those thirty- 
five years a poor man still." 

All the people round him, all the people who served 
under him, had made money, and many of them had 
made fortunes ; but this man — pardon me for saying 
once more — had never accepted a bribe, had never even 
availed himself of financial tips or free shares, and with 
as clean hands as he entered office he left his country. 
The little fortune of his wife — and it is only a little 
fortune — was all they had to live upon, while, as days 
darkened on the Mexican horizon, shares went steadily 
down and down ; but he never complained, all he cared 
for personally was his wife's comfort. 

Diaz had put off his visit to Spain month by month, 
because he thought it was not fair to his old country, in 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 131 



the time of its distress, even to appear to be enjoying 
himself. Poor Diaz, always thinking of Mexico ! His 
Jieart ever in Mexico. 

One day, after the ex-President and his wife had left, 
the writer came down to the hall of the Paris hotel, 
where a packet of thirty or forty telegrams, addressed 
to him from Mexico, lay beside the porter's hand. The 
man was about to forward them to Madrid ; they had 
been coming in for hours. Seeing a Mexican friend later 
in the day, one remarked on this, and expressed the hope 
that nothing was wrong. 

" Wrong ? Oh no ! " he replied. " To-day is the 
second of April, the anniversary of one of General Diaz' 
great battles,* and those telegrams are all from Mexico 
from old friends, reminding him and congratulating 
him on what he did for Mexico." 
Absent, but not forgotten. 

That very day the papers were full of wild sugges- 
tions of everyone being armed in Mexico City — of 
renewed activities, perchance German, or by the Stan- 
dard Oil people, to further rebellion, for the rumour was 
repeated that American money had fostered the revolu- 
tion. But revolution was no more ; things had almost 
reached open anarchy within a year of Diaz' withdrawal. 
It so happened that very day, in the Congress at Mexico 
City, the anniversary of Puebla was mentioned, and with 
one accord a great and most enthusiastic demonstration 

* His capture of Puebla, April 2nd, 1867. Puebla is famous for two 
other successes of Diaz ; the defeat of the French on May 5th, 1862 
(when he was second in command), and the repulse of the French 
attack, during the siege, on April 5th, 1868. 

9* 



182 MEXICO 

was made at the mention of the name of Diaz. 
It was an opportunity for the people, after all the dis- 
tractions his enforced withdrawal from the country had 
brought upon them, to show their loyalty to their old 
chief — and they did it right royalh\ 

Those were great days for Diaz in Madrid, where 
King Alfonso could not do enough for him. After much 
persuasion Diaz had chosen Holy Week for his visit, 
because, as he said, 

" They cannot entertain during that week, so I shall 
be no trouble to anyone." 

But an exception was made for him. The ex-Presi- 
dent and his beautiful wif6 not only lunched en JamiUe 
with King Alfonso and his Consort, but dined at a State 
banquet ; and on Good Friday were the special guests 
of the King at the great Easter ceremony, when his Most 
Catholic Majesty washed the feet of the poor. He was 
even officially sent off at the railway station, when it 
was announced in the newspapers that he was returning 
to Paris, though, as a matter of fact, he and his wife went 
off incognito unolVieially for a little tour in Spain, a 
country they had always longed to see. 

Paris is full of Mexicans, rich people who live in fine 
houses and make it their home. It is a great Mexican 
colony of wealth. No wonder Paris — this happy, pre- 
war Paris — was gay, with its wide streets, its great 
open spaces, its life of the boulevards, where everyone 
seems to live outside a caf^ instead of inside their own 
home. During the time that Diaz and his wife were in 
Paris, in the early days of 1912-13. the Government was 



DIAZ IN RETIREMENT 188 



the best there had been for many a long day. It was a 
sort of poHtical renaissance, under FalH^res : mob rule, 
the people's struggle to gain supremacy all over the 
world, was still in check, and a certain amount of 
respect for educated aristocracy held sway. The music- 
halls still held the Head of the State up to ridicule, 
just as the public songs had done a couple of hundred 
years before. No censor's pencil saved Falli^res. Low 
and vulgar were the allusions — but yet respect for 
his regime crept in. 

La grandr noblesse of France is almost as exclusive as 
in old times. We have become Cosmopolitan in 
England, but the great families of France live their 
own lives, and alone, just as do the great families of 
Spain. 

Life's little tragedies affect us all. 
Life's great tragedies affect the nations. 



CHAPTER Vlll 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 



PRESIDENT MADERO, in the autumn of 1912, 
eighteen months after Diaz had left, was at 
the apogee of his political career. He was 
apparently master of the greater part of Mexico. Felix 
Diaz — ^the ex-President's • nephew, who had failed 
so ignominiously at Vera Cruz — was tried as a rebel, 
and was sentenced to death on October 28th ; but he 
appealed on the ground that, not being on the active 
list of the Army at the time of the revolt, he was 
technically a civilian and as such exempt from the 
jurisdiction of a court martial. Among the Mexican 
better classes, moreover, opinion ran hotly in his 
favour. A deputation of women — those slow, quiet, 
unassertive Mexican women — was sent to the Castle 
of Chapultepec near Mexico City to beg for his life. 
He was imprisoned pending legal proceedings. During 
the remainder of the year few disturbances were 
recorded. The country seems to have been ready to 
accept Madero ; but, to the dismay of his supporters, 
the new President was daily proving himself incapable 
of profiting by the opportunities afforded him. He 
displayed a lamentable lack of administrative skill, 

134 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO ' 135 

and tried to ride the Mexican horse on the easy rein 
of constitutional theory, instead of with the savage 
bit of autocratic absolutism to which the creature had 
been broken. 

All this sounds very bewildering, and so it is. But 
we must remember that Mexico is not one country, 
one climate, or one people. It is many countries, 
many climates, many peoples. There are tribes that 
are almost black, tribes still worshipping in secret 
their wooden idols ; there are yellow people, Aztec 
people, of whom there remain still half a million to-day 
— a great tribe ; Miztecs also, most artistic, particu- 
larly in pottery ware ; Zapotecs, a wonderful tribe, 
with especially handsome women. The Zapotecs, 
who built the famous fortress of Mitla, inhabit the 
whole southern State of Oaxaca. The Otomi, almost 
the oldest people in Mexico, are dull and stupid ; to 
the assistance of the Tlaxcalans, a superior type, famous 
in history, the success of Cortes was largely due. The 
Juaves, who are supposed to have come from Peru, 
still go naked, although the law forbids their entering 
towns unclothed. The Toltecs arrived in Mexico as 
early as a.d. 648 ; the Chichemecs in 1170, the Alcol- 
huans about 1200 ; the Mexicans, who founded Mexico 
City, reached Tula in 1196. 

All these — one has mentioned but a small proportion 
of the numberless Mexican tribes and peoples — have 
different ideas and objects, and consequently different 
leaders appeal to them. They have always been 
poor, living largely on maize, rice and beans, and 



136 MEXICO 

plunder is a natural temptation to their childish nature. 
Brave and daring they are also. Look at the cowboys, 
see them lassoing wild bulls on the open prairie for 
the Ring, as the writer has done — and you will realize 
that they are veritable children of nature, in many cases 
as wild as their own wild horses, panthers, jaguars, wild 
boars and dangerous timber-wolves. 

The year 1913 opened ominously. There were 
renewed Zapatista excesses in the southern State of 
Morelos — irritating, but not of political importance — 
and a recrudescence of rebellion in northern Chihuahua, 
where the Federal General sent to suppress the rising 
was captured by the insurgents ; but the real danger 
to any prolonged continuation of Madero's constitu- 
tional dreams and impracticable theories lay in Mexico 
City itself, where he was being quietly abandoned by 
his former adherents. 

This became plain early in February — in the semana 
tragica, as it was called — when a great part of the 
Army revolted, made a pronunciamiento against the 
President, and released the two really important 
political prisoners, Felix Diaz and Bernardo Reyes. 
Either of them might have been made President, and 
yet both failed to attain that end. General Reyes was, 
as we know, imprisoned in the Carcel de Santiago, near 
the Custom House, Felix Diaz having been brought 
from Vera Cruz and confined in the Penitentiary. A 
cleverly-organized plot was hatched in which the 
Aspirantes (military students) at Tlalpan, near the 
city, took a prominent part. 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 137 

In the early hours of the morning of Sunday, 
February 9th, they left the academy at Tlalpan, and 
made their way to Mexico City, proceeding to the 
Santiago prison, where the guard was prepared for 
them, and released General Reyes. The latter went 
on to the barracks, the inmates of which were in the 
plot, and was soon found riding at the head of a con- 
siderable force. The students then made their way 
to the Penitentiary and released Felix Diaz. General 
Reyes proceeded to the National Palace in the main 
Plaza, it being understood that the guard was prepared 
to receive and admit him. Madero, however, who 
had in the meantime been advised of what was happen- 
ing, rode some miles from Chapultepec and changed 
the guard. Thus, General Reyes, on his arrival at the 
Palace, was refused admittance. 

A volley was fired — and Reyes fell dead. 

This volley was jfired across the Plaza, regardless of 
innocent lives, of which about two hundred were 
sacrificed. 

Felix Diaz, on his escape from the Penitentiary, by 
a coup took possession of the Ciudadela (Arsenal) later 
in the day. 

Huerta was then the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Federal forces, which had the strongest position, the 
revolting force being confined in the Ciudadela. 
Federal forces were called in from all quarters, and 
shell fire was concentrated from the National Palace 
under the personal direction of Madero, and from all 
points of vantage round the city. 



138 MEXICO 



During the night of February 9th, FeHx Diaz, once 
head of the Police, laid out his plan of action, taking 
possession of all the streets leading to his stronghold, 
and stationing his men with quick-firing guns on all 
the high buildings near, principally the Young Men's 
Christian Association. 

The bombardment commenced in earnest at 10 a.m., 
Monday, February 10th, and continued unceasingly night 
and day until the following Sunday. Things were in 
a fearful state. The city was in siege. People were 
being killed on every side, when an armistice was 
declared for twenty-four hours from 2 a.m. to enable 
those who wished to leave the city, and for those who 
remained to obtain provisions. The armistice, how- 
ever, was not maintained and firing recommenced 
at about two o'clock in the afternoon. 

During the week, efforts had been made by the 
Foreign Representatives to bring about an under- 
standing, without avail. The homes and gardens of 
the various legations were full of people too frightened 
to remain in their own homes. Madero was begged 
to resign as the only possible way to bring about peace, 
but remained stubborn. Ultimately, on or about 
February 20th, it was made clear to him that there 
was no other course open. After consultation, the 
principal members of the Government and citizens 
decided that, as he refused to resign, he should be 
arrested. This decision was carried out, after some 
resistance and the shooting by Madero of the officer 
sent to put this into effect. 




A coiner of Bucareli. 



[To face p.'_i39- 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 139 



All the proceedings were carried out constitu- 
tionally ; Madero and Pino Suarez resigned, and 
Lascurain, the Foreign Minister, became automatically 
Minister of the Interior, Huerta taking his place. 
Lascurain immediately resigned, and Huerta became 
interim President. 

It was understood that Madero and Pino Suarez 
would be allowed to leave the country for Cuba, and 
a special train containing his family was in waiting 
for Madero until a late hour. A message, however, 
was at last sent to Madame Madero telling her that his 
departure was postponed. 

The poor lady never saw her husband alive again. 

How Madero met his death was for long a complete 
mystery, but the truth of the matter has now come 
to light. 

The ex-President, when his enemies got to work, 
was a prisoner at the National Palace, from which it 
was thought desirable to remove him. The intending 
assassins attained this end on the pretext of assuring 
his safety by a removal to the big prison outside the 
city — an excuse familiar enough, under similar con- 
ditions, in the story of many an unfortunate whose 
existence a revolutionary or usurping Government 
has chosen to regard as superfluous. Madero was 
stealthily conveyed in a closed motor-car, which took 
him round the back of his prison. 

Stepping from the car, doubtless without suspicion 
of any danger, the ex-President was then and there 
shot down. 



140 MEXICO 



His murderer somehow or other got clear of Mexico, 
and thereupon took up his abode in Guatemala. 

There were, of course, other persons concerned in 
the intrigue, and their names are now well known. 

The question of Huerta's possible implication in the 
affair was peculiarly vital, for it was the clou of 
America's attitude towards him. Could he have con- 
vinced Washington of his innocence, he would have 
had from Wilson that backing and acknowledgment 
the lack of which, as we shall see later, deprived 
Mexico at a crucial epoch of her one possible ruler. 

It is absolutely certain that Huerta was not a direct 
participator in the crime ; he himself strenuously denied 
it ; but, at the same time, it is possible that, though 
he did not direct this foul murder, he might, by 
reasonable precautions, have prevented it. 

Madero never could have ruled the country because 
he was himself, as said, ruled by spiritualistic fads. 
He was, in fact, a well-meaning crank. 

Madero' s brother, Gustavo, was seized the next 
day while taking supper at one of the principal 
restaurants, removed to the Ciudadela, and there 
shot. It is said that he begged for his life and offered 
a fabulous sum to be set free, but without avail, his 
enemies (he was much disliked) having no mercy. 

Even when Mexico City was thus turned into a 
shambles, the foreign colony stayed on, never knowing 
what might happen day by day, just as, for months 
before, they had bravely kept their place as matters 
went swiftly from bad to worse. Some men, it is 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 141 



true — those who could afford it — sent their wives and 
children home ; but the women who would not leave 
their men folk alone in peril remained. Everyone 
suffered greatly. The country was unsafe. The 
capital itself was a city of chaos. For days no one 
dared stir outside his door. People were shot on sight. 
Dead bodies lay about the streets. The embassies and 
legations were besieged by refugees. And as food 
supplies ran down, the dread spectre of famine was 
added to the other anxieties of this anxious time. 

In the United States Huerta was held responsible 
for the death of Madero. In Mexico his fate, though 
horrifying, was at first regarded by the majority of 
people as the natural penalty of political failure. 

The rebellion against Porfirio Diaz, which was 
headed by Madero, was a genuinely political movement ; 
and the overthrow of the latter, though effected by a 
military revolt, was also due to political causes. The 
internal disorders which have since occurred in Mexico 
were of a different character. They were due partly 
to the personal ambitions and animosities of a few 
leaders, and still more to the disorganization of a 
large part of the country, following upon two revolutions. 

There had been a social upheaval which had re- 
awakened the primitive and savage instincts of the 
peon class, who are for the most part of nearly pure 
Indian blood. Greed and lust have been powerful 
incentives to rebellion, but in addition there seems 
in many cases to have been a conscious effort to destroy 
every vestige of civilization. 



142 MEXICO 

The experience of a commercial traveller may be 
of interest as illustrating the type of miscreants who 
were now over-running this unhappy country. 

Travelling by train from Torreon north, with an 
escort of some fifty Federals, the party found, a few 
hours from Torreon, that they could not proceed as a 
bridge ahead had been set on fire by the rebels. The 
travellers returned, but were again stopped by another 
burning bridge. There was no choice but to remain 
where they were. Presently the guard deserted and 
they were attacked by about a hundred and fifty bandits 
(so-called rebels), who held up the train, and, after 
looting other-class passengers, came into the Pullman, 
where there were sixteen people, amongst them being a 
mother and two daughters. They were ordered to give 
up all they possessed, and the women were left in their 
petticoats, and the men in their trousers and shirts. 
An American had a diamond ring on the third finger 
of his left hand, which, in the excitement of the moment, 
he could not get off. Hereupon, one of the half- 
drunken fiends, believing he intended to try and keep 
it, called a comrade, who seized the man's little finger, 
which he broke backwards, whilst the other chopped 
off the finger and ring with his machete (sword). 
Searching the seats of the car, they found a revolver 
which one of the passengers had hidden. They de- 
manded to know who had placed it there, instead of 
delivering it with the rest of the plunder, and, on 
failing to get an answer, decided to lock their victims 
in the car and set fire to it with petroleum. The owner 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 143 

of the pistol then owned up and was asked why he 
had not done so before ; on replying that he was afraid 
to do so, he was told to stand up and see whether he 
was still afraid, while three of the band were ordered 
to fire on him. At this he swooned — the swoon saved 
his life. 



General Huerta, whose rule as Provisional President 
of Mexico began in this bloody fashion, was a dried-up- 
looking man in spectacles. He was about sixty-two, 
and had very bad sight owing to cataract. He was 
highly educated, served in the Army as an engineer 
officer, having been trained at the Military School at 
Chapultepec, and at one time he was employed on 
survey work. He always spoke of himself as an 
Indian, and was said to be of pure Aztec blood. Huerta 
was an able man. His conversation was well in- 
formed and agreeable. In his spare time he was 
fond of studying astronomy and military history. 
His family were small rancheros, or yeoman farmers, 
in the State of Jalisco (on the middle-west 
coast). 

Essentially a man of the people, Huerta loved to 
display himself as such. He went to the taverns in 
the evenings, and freely drank with those assembled, 
but did not get drunk. He always knocked off pulque 
(the poisonous cheap drink of the country, made from 
the fermented juice of the aloe) for serious work. He 
never wore his uniform, but always a soft felt hat. His 



144 MEXICO 



house was a most modest one. His wife was a hand- 
some woman, simple but with some style. She received 
in a ladylike way in the drawing-room at Chapultepec 
in the afternoon every three weeks. She was half 
Indian, of Spanish appearance and dignified manner. 

Huerta hated office work, and loathed the routine 
duties that detained him at the Municipal Palace. 
The diplomats he received at the National Palace, 
but except on those occasions he was never there. 
His real interest was power ; if money had any attrac- 
tions for him it is difficult to see wherein they lay. 
Certainly he did not use his position to purchase 
luxury or magnificent surroundings. His tastes were of 
the simplest order — a shanty with chickens seemed all 
that he wanted. At times he literally ran away to such 
a shanty outside the city, leaving his Ministers without 
knowledge of his whereabouts, and they were con- 
stantly scheming to catch him. Most of his work was 
done from a motor-car. Another car having brought 
his secretary and telegraph clerk, a halt would be made 
on the roadside under shelter of the trees, and the 
nation's business thereupon transacted. 

Dictator in everything but name, he was the one 
strong man since Diaz that Mexico had produced, and 
he kept firmly in his seat, with revolutions on every 
hand and a foreign enemy in his ports. Confident in 
his own strength, he was not a little contemptuous of 
those arrayed against him. His desire was to be the 
pacificator of his country. His methods will not bear 
minute investigation, for he was no dreamer like Madero, 



DOWNFALL OF MADERO 145 

and he had no illusions as to what was needed to 
keep Mexico quiet. 

Huerta's strong personality so overshadowed all 
others that outside the country his colleagues in the 
Government of Mexico remained quite unknown. To 
the world at large the internecine struggle was between 
Huerta on the one hand and Carranza and Villa on the 
other. 

Carranza (who still remains upon the canvas as these 
pages go to press), like Huerta, was by no means a 
young man. He was nearly sixty, and in appearance, 
with his long beard and spectacles, was more like a 
professor than a revolutionary. His manners were 
rough, but he was dignified and well educated. 

Carranza' s importance at this time was due to the 
fact that he was an adherent of Madero, and was 
Governor of a State under Madero's presidency. His 
name, therefore, gave the rebels an appearance of 
respectability which they were far from deserving, 
and so afforded them a semblance of justification for 
the name of Constitutionalists which they had assumed. 
It was stated on good authority that the reason why 
he was able to start a revolution against Huerta so soon 
after the latter's accession to power was that he was 
preparing to revolt against Madero (so soon afterwards 
to be murdered), who had granted him considerable 
subsidies, but had afterwards withdrawn them or had 
threatened to do so. 

General Villa, another aspirant, and, like Madero, 
supported by the United States — to whom he later 

10 



146 MEXICO 



gave so much trouble — was nothing more than a 
muleteer and bandit chief, with the blackest of records, 
even for a Mexican outlaw. Originally he fought 
on the side of Madero against General Diaz. Perhaps 
he was the best cavalry leader the Maderists had. 
When Orozco went against Diaz in the north, Villa 
gave his help. Villa was almost, if not quite, illiterate, 
and quite incapable of heading a serious political 
party, but he was the man the United States sent fifty 
thousand soldiers later to catch. A truly picturesque 
personality. He fought against Orozco when the latter 
rebelled against Madero, and his arrival in any village 
was more dreaded than .that of the rebels. General 
Huerta — a man, if far from impeccable, certainly 
superior to the others — when he commanded the Federal 
troops in the north, wished to shoot him for in- 
subordination and looting, but President Madero 
interfered in his favour. 

Carranza could exercise no control over him, for he 
was much the stronger man of the two, and likely to 
remain so as long as any looting remained within 
reach of his followers. 



CHAPTER IX 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 



HUERTA, in the first days of his rule, found 
himself rid of one difficulty — the existence of 
a rival President — but the death of Madero in 
such tragic circumstances did, when it came home 
to them, shock people, even in Mexico. The garrison 
of Juarez revolted ; discipline was only restored by 
the execution of ninety-five of the mutineers on 
February 25th, 1913. This new President had a firm 
hand. There was a great recrudescence of rebel activity 
in the north. Eugenio Zapata, brother of the notorious 
Emilio Zapata, proclaimed himself at President Huerta's 
disposal two days later. 

Next day General Felix Diaz, who was still on 
good terms with President Huerta, announced his 
candidature in the forthcoming elections. Things 
appeared to be on the road to becoming normal. The 
new Minister of Finance, Sefior Esquinral Obregon, 
made arrangement for a loan of £12,000,000. During 
March the rebels in the north, who had been plundering 
villages, raping women and thieving generally, were 
defeated on several occasions, and to such good purpose 
that by the 25th of the month it was announced that 

147 10* 



148 MEXICO 



seventy-five leaders, with 11,392 of their followers, 
had " come in," and adhered to the Government. On 
April 2nd the Mexican Congress was opened. 

Great Britain, ten days later, recognized Huerta as 
President. Although by no means ideal, he was the 
best of the bunch and the one most likely to bring 
about peace. Other Powers did the same, and at 
last the United States was almost alone in its refusal 
to accept the new regime in Mexico. Things might 
have turned out very differently, and peace might have 
been restored to Mexico, if President Wilson had only 
supported this man at this time, as his predecessor Taft 
had done. 

The President showed some vigour in reducing the 
remaining bands of rebels, and on April 23rd proposed to 
Congress that the Presidential Election should be held 
on July 27th. But the Liberal majority declined to 
accept an election under the then existing conditions, 
and insisted that the country must first be pacified. 
r^In the north, however, Sonora was organized as an 
independent Government, issuing paper money and 
postage stamps of its own. Although the Mexican 
Congress strengthened the Federal Executive by 
authorizing a loan of £20,000,000, twenty-one of the 
rebels, of various parties, but mainly styling them- 
selves Constitutionalists, were able to use the State of 
Sonora as a base of operations. They took dear old 
steep Zacatecas, quaintest of cities, and probably the 
highest town (8,500 feet above the sea level) of any size 
in the world, on June 11th, and Durango on June 23rd. 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 149 



A month later the question of recognition by the 
United States began to assume distinct poHtical import- 
ance. The fact that it was still withheld greatly 
encouraged the rebels and impeded Huerta. 

The civil war swayed backwards and forwards with 
varying fortunes, all most disturbing to the country, 
and the reader, and yet one cannot pass them over 
without noting a few links in the chain of warlike inci- 
dents. In August the rebels succeeded in destroying 
a small Federal gunboat in the harbour of Guaymas, 
the only town in Sonora to recognize the President, but 
ten days later the rebels were badly defeated near 
Torreon. It was announced on August 23rd from 
Mexico City that the rebellion in Morelos had been 
suppressed, and that Zapata had fled, while his ad- 
herents, who had been preying upon the suburbs of 
the capital, were nearly all exterminated ; but at 
this very time rebels, or " brigands," murdered some 
foreigners in the State of Michoacan (running from 
Mexico City to the western coast), and at the begin- 
ning of September a force of insurrectos again threatened 
Torreon, the great railway junction of the middle north. 
A train was blown up with dynamite to the south of 
Saltillo, fifty passengers being killed ; this was the first 
of several similar achievements. On October 8th there 
was severe fighting near Torreon, in which the Federals, 
under General Alvarez, were defeated. 

The defeat had momentous consequences. The 
Federals were forced to retire south, and evacuate 
the town next day. This " pusillanimity " was 



150 MEXICO 



^ 



severely criticized in the Chamber on October 10th. 
President Huerta then determined upon a coup d'itat. 
He marched down troops, and dissolved Congress by 
proclamation. This bold step was followed by the 
imprisonment of no fewer than a hundred and 
ten of the deputies for conspiring against the 
Government. 

From this day President Huerta's absolute dictator- 
ship may be said to date. He appointed October 26th, 
1913, as the date of the new elections to Congress, so 
that they might take place at the same time as the 
voting for the new President. 

There were four candidates for the Presidency — ■ 
General Felix Diaz, who had been out of the country 
for some time, and only returned a few days before 
the election : Sefior Federico Gamboa, the Foreign 
Minister ; Seilor Manuel Calero ; and Sefior David 
de la Fuente. In order to ensure the " tranquillity of 
the occasion," Don Manuel Madero, a cousin of 
the late President, was arrested and sent to join the 
other two members of his family — Don Everisto and 
Don Daniel — who were already in prison. The voting 
was slack. Most of the inhabitants of Mexico City 
preferred a visit to a bull fight to attendance at the 
polling booths, and a constitutional quorum for the 
election of a President was not obtained. Of the 
votes actually cast, President Huerta, although he 
was not a candidate, being constitutionally ineligible, 
secured a majority. The voting failed to produce 
a President, but it at least evolved a new Congress, 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 151 

more pliable in the President's hands than the last, 
as for the election of deputies no quorum of votes had 
been prescribed. 

A few days later took place another sensational 
event in the swiftly- moving drama. General Felix 
Diaz had led the revolt against Madero by the seizure 
of Vera Cruz. When released from prison in Mexico 
City by the Army ^meute there, he had placed himself 
at the head of the revolt. With Huerta he acted 
throughout those perilous days, when the fate of all 
was undecided. When Huerta became Provisional 
President, it was with Felix Diaz as the nominee for 
Constitutional President when the elections should 
produce such a one. They were the two figure-heads 
of the revolt. 

With immense surprise the public learnt that Felix 
Diaz had appeared at Vera Cruz, and sought refuge on 
a United States warship there, declaring that he had 
certain information in his possession that, had he 
remained twelve hours longer in the country, he would 
have been assassinated. 

Madero was dead ; General Porfirio Diaz an exile 
in a foreign land ; Felix Diaz arrived as a refugee in 
Cuba. Huerta remained alone, master at least of so 
much of Mexico as lay immediately at his hand. 

And away to the north enormous territories were 
being harassed by a rebellion which steadily extended, 
the insurrectionary armies being recruited by new 
forces after every victory they gained. 

History was again tying itself into knots. 



152 IVIEXICO 



The rebels continued to advance, and on 
November 4th they controlled all Durango and 
Coahuila, all Sonora except Guayma^, and all Chi- 
huahua except the State capital, most of Zacatecas, and 
part of Michoacan. On November 15th, Generals 
Pacheco and Villa attacked and captured Ciudad 
Judrez {El Paso) on the right bank of the Rio Grande. 
Seven Federal officers, who were among their prisoners, 
were taken out and summarily shot. Another strong 
force attacked Victoria, which fell after a week's fighting, 
the Federal Commander, General Rogago, committing 
suicide after the surrender. 3Iazatlan, on the Pacific, 
was assaulted on the 24th. . Chihuahua, in the north, 
was evacuated by the Federals on December 2nd. 
Tampico, the important oil port on the Gulf of Mexico, 
was then attacked by rebels. After four days' fighting 
they were repulsed, and the Federals followed up their 
victory and recaptured Torreon on December 12th. 
In the north a Federal attack on Judrez had faOed on 
November 25th. After some highly spectacular fight- 
ing, which lasted a fortnight, Ojinaga, on the frontier, 
was captured by rebels under General Villa, in the 
first days of the year 1914. 

It must not be supposed that these were trained and 
organized soldiers — ^those had long ceased to exist. 
They were a rough and tumble armed mob ; led by the 
strongest will of the moment, and deteriorating in moral 
every day as they increased in lust of gain and in self- 
support. They overran the country like locusts, 
stripping all before them. Yet, unruly though they 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 153 

were, they were men of the mountains, men of the woods, 
men of the wilds accustomed to saddle, rifle and bow — 
and fear was a word of which they knew not the meaning. 

Bandits, villains, thieves, this rebel army was equally 
rebellious whichever side it happened to be on. 

Steadily the financial position of the Huerta Govern- 
ment went from bad to worse. The exchange value 
of the Mexican peso fell below its intrinsic worth as 
an ingot of silver. Coin vanished out of circulation. 
President Huerta, reduced to all manner of desperate 
expedients, proclaimed prolonged bank holidays — first 
for a fortnight, then for three months. Nothing, how- 
ever, could stave off the inevitable disaster, and at 
last, for the second time in its history, Mexico was 
obliged to default in the payment of the interest due 
on its foreign loans. This was on January 13th, 1914. 

The new Mexican Congress had met in the previous 
November, and declared the Presidential election 
void. Fresh elections were ordered for July 5th, 1914. 
General Huerta was recognized as Interim President 
until a successor should have been elected, being thus 
firmly seated in his dictatorship. By January 5th 
he considered himself strong enough to release the 
hundred and ten imprisoned ex-deputies, with the 
exception of twelve, whom he probably deemed too 
dangerous to be set free. The campaign in the north 
still went on with varying fortunes. 

President Huerta had constantly been urged to 
take more vigorous steps to deal with the rebellion, 
the war having been waged in many cases in a half- 



154 MEXICO 

hearted and singularly inefficient manner. He declared 
his intention of adopting Lord Kitchener's South 
African blockhouse system for hampering the rebels, 
but declined to take the field, or to leave Mexico City. 
It will be remembered that he had enjoyed great success 
in suppressing rebellion during the Maderist regime, 
and many of his supporters had great faith in his 
military capacity. With a vigorous Press censorship 
established on one side of the frontier, and an imagina- 
tive American Press on the other, it is difficult to 
follow the subsequent course of events in the field. 
At the end of March, however, it was announced that 
General Villa, who was supposed to be advancing on 
the capital, had been defeated near Torreon, over five 
hundred miles to the north of it. This victory after- 
wards assumed the appearance of a defeat. Foreign 
observers, after studying the mutually contradictory 
reports circulated from Mexico City and Washington, 
came to the conclusion that if picturesque General Villa 
had won a victory it was of a Pyrrhic nature, and 
that his position was not greatly improved thereby. 



Going back a bit, a momentous event outside her own 
borders had entirely altered the position of affairs in 
Mexico. The defeat of Mr. Taft a year before, and the 
election of Mr. Wilson as President of the United States 
(1912), with the subsequent appointment of Mr. Bryan 
as Secretary, led to a new curve of American policy. 
To President Wilson, a constitutional doctrinaire, the 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 155 

murder of Madero was an act that it was impossible to 
condone. It was impossible that the freedom-loving 
citizens of America could consent to recognize as ruler 
of a neighbouring State the man Huerta, whom they 
erroneously thought a murderer, and who had climbed 
into the Presidential chair and established himself there. 
Wilson refused to support him, and from that moment 
the worst of Mexican rule began. 

The one point upon which President Wilson's mind 
was fixed from the day that he entered the White House 
was that never could he recognize Huerta. Rather 
than do so the United States went to war — a war, the 
President was anxious to explain at the outset, not 
against the Mexican people, but waged to obtain repara- 
tion from the man who, usurping supreme power in 
Mexico, had dared to outrage the American flag and 
trample upon the rights of American citizens. What- 
ever approval President Wilson's policy may have 
gained in the United States, the withholding of recog- 
nition of Huerta was certainly resented by Americans 
in Mexico. Mr. Bryan's early announcement that 
" Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom " was 
to be his motto neither impressed nor soothed his critics. 
The matter was complicated by the fact that Mr. Henry 
L. Wilson, the American Ambassador, had been present 
when the Foreign Diplomatists had congratulated Presi- 
dent Huerta on his accession, and, as doyen of the diplo- 
matic body, had himself read an address on its behalf. 

Living in Mexico City, at the heart of Mexican 
politics, Mr. Henry Wilson, the Ambassador, had 



156 IVfEXICO 

persuaded himself from his knowledge of affairs at first 
hand — ^like our own Minister — that General Huerta was 
the one man in Mexico strong enough to exercise control, 
and restore some semblance of settled order in the 
country. Mr. Woodrow Wilson, the President, thought 
the contrary, and did not accept his Ambassador's 
reports. The Ambassador was called to the White 
House for consultation. Friendly suggestions were 
made by Washington that President Huerta should 
help Mr. Bryan out of his difficulty b}'' abdicating. 
This he entirely declined to do, and early in August 
the American Ambassador resigned. 

Washington then sent Mr. John Lind as " Adviser 
to the Embassy," with a personal mission, while Mr. 
O'Shaughnessy became Charge d' Affaires. The mission 
was an impossible one. President Huerta declined to 
receive Mr. Lind as an official person who was entrusted 
with a confidential message unless he were properly 
accredited. As this would have involved recognition 
of President Huerta, Mr. Bryan declined. Mr. Lind's 
status was, throughout the prolonged negotiations 
which followed, uncertain and irregular. He reached 
Mexico City on August 10th, and by degrees it became 
known that Washington demanded four points : 
{a) The immediate cessation of hostilities. 

(b) General Huerta' s abdication in favour of an 
Interim President. 

(c) Early presidential elections ; 

(d) At which General Huerta was not to be a 
candidate. 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 157 



President Huerta refused to suspend hostilities or to 
abdicate on the grounds, firstly, that he was the only 
man capable of restoring order, and, secondly, because 
the Mexican Congress declined to have the new elections 
before order should have been restored. He pointed 
out that he had asked for elections in July, and that, 
according to the Constitution, he, as Provisional 
President, was not allowed to be a candidate for, or 
to be elected to, the Presidency. Washington, how- 
ever, was obdurate. The negotiations broke down on 
the refusal to abdicate. 

The diplomatic situation between Mexico and the 
United States rapidly drifted into an impasse. On 
August 27th, 1913, President Wilson, in his Message 
to Congress, announced that "it is now our duty to 
show what true neutrality will do to enable the people 
of Mexico to set their affairs in order again," and pro- 
hibited the export of arms or ammunition for the 
Mexican Federal Government ; in spite of which, 
however, tens of thousands of their own arms were 
afterwards used against America. He also urged all 
United States citizens in Mexico to leave that Republic, 
and offered financial assistance to Mexico if Huerta were 
to abdicate. Next day the frontier patrols along the 
southern boundary of the United States were strength- 
ened. Washington even talked about supervising the 
Mexican elections. 

Later, on September 5th, the rebels assured the world 
at large that they would never recognize any elections 
held by President Huerta, and after the coup d'etat 



158 MEXICO 



on October 10th, Washington declined to recognize the 
Mexican Federal Government, or its elections, or any- 
one elected thereat, and actually invited suggestions 
from the rebels as to the best way of solving the diffi- 
culty. Washington had by this step deliberately put 
itself in such a position that, unless ready to eat its 
own words, it was cut off from all diplomatic relations 
with the Mexican Government until some successful 
rebel should have ousted General Huerta, and violently 
possessed himself of the Presidency. 

All this was done in the name of the highest morality. 
In his determination not to recognize Huerta, President 
Wilson doomed Mexico to. a prolonged civil war for the 
purpose of restoring peace and order. To further this 
end, Washington, in November, sent Dr. Hale as an 
unofficial agent to the rebel " capital " at Nogales, 
and announced on December 2nd that there could be 
no peace in Mexico until General Huerta should have 
surrendered his usurped authority. 

Full of the doctrine that political morality, if not 
expediency, demanded Huerta' s deposition, the Cabinet 
of Washington resolutely shut its ears to the protesta- 
tions of its nationals in Mexico, and the exposure of rebel 
methods by impartial observers. That the rebels under 
Villa had committed barbarous atrocities, mutilations, 
tortures, murders; that their adyance was marked by 
rapine, arson, violations of women, and the wholesale 
destruction or confiscation of property, and the shooting 
of prisoners — all this was ignored. In order to hasten 
the dislodgment of the hated Huerta, President Wilson, 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 159 

on February 3rd, 1914, went back on his proclamation 
of " true neutrality " made six months before, and 
raised the embargo on the export of arms and ammuni- 
tion destined for the rebels, while continuing to enforce 
it against the Federals. 

Many United States citizens at once prepared to 
leave Mexico City. 

What excitement there was when Torreon was reported 
to have been captured b}^ the Villa insurgents. Whole 
columns appeared in the American Press, as though 
Paris or Berlin had fallen. One might have imagined 
Torreon was an enormous and wonderful place. It is 
nothing of the kind, although somewhat important 
because the International and Mexican Central Lines 
intersect at that spot. 

As the writer knew it first, it was a miserable little 
place ; but with the advent of the railway this town 
of gay colours, with idle Indians in bright red blankets, 
Chinese with pigtails, and a general Oriental air, had 
become a business centre. Those funny little portable 
tables, like pedlar's trays, are still dumped down on 
the platform of the railway station, where vendors 
in big Mexican hats sell their wares to passing 
travellers — for a Mexican railway station is always 
the rendezvous of the town, and the hub of small 
business transactions. It is here that peons will loaf 
for hours, waiting for the train. They will smoke and 
chat and loll about, and idle generally, for such is their 
way, and as the Indians are musical by birth, their sad, 
doleful native music often fills the air. 



160 MEXICO 

Torreon is distinctly a Mexican town : much more 
so than Monterey, which, through the advent of 
Americans, assumed something of the bustHng air of 
a Chicago or St. Louis in a milder way. Torreon, 
like Monterey, expanded enormously in the first fifteen 
years of the century. They became business centres. 
English and Americans assembled in large numbers in 
these towns, but the unfriendliness towards the latter 
was never overcome. 

It is amusing to look back on the fact that the writer 
went the first trip of the new line from Torreon to 
Santiago, in the autumn of 1899, in a private car with 
the chairman of the line — Mr. Lorenzo Johnson. 

It appears that when the first engine arrived with 
some freight cars, the natives were terribly alarmed, 
so experts carefully explained to them how the ma- 
chinery and the steam made the engine pull the cars 
along. This pacified them ; they had feared it was 
something uncanny, which foreboded evil. One day, 
however, an engine backed, when terrible was the con- 
sternation of the populace. Nothing had been said 
about that, and they thought it must be a device of 
the devil himself ! Panic reigned for a time, for those 
uneducated folk are terribly superstitious. 

When we pulled up at Santiago, a miniature Jeru- 
salem lay before us. One-storied, flat-roofed, window- 
less, mud-brick houses, huge prickly pears and cactus, 
long-haired pigs, women with shawls over their heads, 
generally barefooted — or, if richer, wearing sandals 
of leather — all these met our view. Scenes reminding 



HUERTA SEIZES POWER 161 



one of Bible history met the eye on every side, even 
the grinding of corn between stones. 

Santiago intends to grow big ; it has already started 
a plaza, or public garden, and even put up a band- 
stand, a strange anomaly amidst so much that is 
primitive. Pigs and chickens are running about the 
ill-paved, cobbled streets, and live at night in a room 
occupied by a whole family. The door of the house 
is shut, there is no window or ventilator of any kind ; 
and darkness and general stuffiness prevail, added to 
the odour of pigs and chickens. 

Oil lamps occasionally swing across a street from 
ropes, but only where four roads meet. Women — and 
quite young women, too — stand at their doors smoking. 

From twelve noon to three o'clock is the hour of rest. 
Even the church door is locked — an almost unknown 
event in a Catholic country. Priests are not allowed 
to dress in their clerical robes in the land of Monte- 
zuma, so, as a sort of compromise, they wear black 
tall hats. Even in the wilds of the country, far away 
from the haunts of civilization, one meets the curious 
spectacle of a top hat, worn with a black Spanish cloak. 
Such top hats they are, too ! They would do credit 
to Ally Sloper. 

In the middle of the town was the " ball wall " ; 
every village has this. The Palotta game is a great 
Mexican game ; it resembles tennis — not lawn-tennis — 
except that it is played with the hand-basket instead of 
with a racquet, and the wall and sides are not nearly so 
large as in a racquet court. 

II 



162 MEXICO 



Santiago, a mighty queer old spot, untouched by 
civiHzation, was still real primitive old-world Mexico. 
Half a dozen engineers, a handful of engine-drivers and 
a few miners were the only white people who, up to that 
day, had set foot in the place. Yet it had its music- 
stand and its fine old church, its public gardens and 
its promenade. The poorer women wore their reboso, 
or head-shawl, and the richer their lace mantillas — 
until my arrival a woman in a hat had never been seen. 

When we returned to our car we found an admiring 
crowd still standing round, engaged in busily examining 
it, and when we left the town the crowd ran alongside 
the rails with us for at least half a mile, the men wildly 
waving their hats and yelling ; but whether they were 
most interested in the sight of an Englishwoman or a 
Pullman car will ever remain a mystery. 

Such was Santiago, and not much greater was Torreon 
at the dawn of this century. Both were the scene of 
much fighting during the revolution. 

Wonderful expansion followed, and development of 
every kind under the Diaz regime, to be checked and 
temporarily destroyed during the revolutionary days 
that followed his flight from Mexico. 



CHAPTER X 

ENGLISHMAN MURDERED AND AMERICAN FLAG 
DISHONOURED 

THERE are many people who consider that the 
United States have no right to interfere in 
Mexican affairs ; that Mexico no more belongs 
to them than does Canada ; that the Pan-American 
Union, housed within half a mile of the Capitol, with 
a network of agencies extending from Washington to 
Cape Horn, has no business to attempt to domineer over 
and dictate to the Latin-American countries ; that the 
Pan-American Union was built not merely for the 
expansion of trade, but for the final absorption of all 
the Americas. 

Strangely enough, Germany also had her eye on 
South America, and a map is extant, showing how she 
expected to dominate the whole of South America, 
the greater part of Europe, including Northern France, 
Russia up to a line about one hundred miles west 
of Petrograd, and the whole of Asia Minor up to the 
Armenian border. A considerable slice of Asia, of 
course, embracing India and Mesopotamia, must be 
added to the above. For some obscure reason or other 

163 II* 



164 MEXICO 



Mexico is omitted from the modest plan, in spite 
of the endless German intrigues to confiscate that 
land. 

A very fine institution, no doubt, is the Pan-American 
Union. Andrew Carnegie gave a million pounds for 
the erection of its palatial buildings. There one may 
see photographs, maps, charts, data of every con- 
ceivable kind from Old Mexico to Patagonia. All this 
is supposed to be for the good of the American tourist, 
but is also designed for the above-mentioned trade 
expansion. 

Then, again, if the United States intends to " father " 
Mexico, would it not have been better to have started 
doing so with a strong hand, instead of in such an old 
grandmotherly way, which meant allowing the child 
to walk and run, and then pulling him up at every 
step ? For that is what the United States has 
been doing, more or less, ever since Diaz left the 
country. 

If America wished to annex Mexico as a first instal- 
ment of better things, her statesmen should have said 
so plainly in 1912, and boldly avowed that they had 
thrown over the limitations of the Monroe Doctrine, 
which prohibits them from molesting other peoples or 
dictating terms as to their lives and livelihoods. There 
is no doubt about it, the States could have intervened, as 
Great Britain would not, and could have brought about 
peace and prosperity for Mexico ; but their " inter- 
vention " was a farce, and the country slipped from 
bad to worse, and from worse to utter hopelessness. 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 165 

Never was there more talk and less action than in the 
relation between the United States and Mexico. 

We Britons have done just as badly in other 
quarters, but two wrongs do not make even half a 
right. 

It must be remembered that only a century ago 
Mexico was, territorially speaking, one of the largest 
States in the world. Its boundaries extended over 
what is now the United States as far as the Red and 
Arkansas Rivers to the Pacific Coast, and northwards 
to the British Possessions. For its contraction from 
a State of such enormous area to the limits of its 
present frontiers two causes are accountable : the 
collapse of the power of Spain under pressure from 
Napoleon I. and the civil turmoil and strife which 
were waged before the Republic at length found the 
secret of settled government. Louisiana, a province 
nearly a million square miles in extent, was lost to 
Mexico in 1801, by the weakness of Charles IV. of 
Spain, who abandoned it to France. Napoleon, with- 
out occupying the territory, sold it to the new Republic 
of the United States for fifteen million dollars in cash. 
Florida, another sixt}'^ thousand square miles, was 
taken from the Spanish Mexican Empire and bartered 
to the same purchasers by Fernando VII. in 1819. 
Guatemala, nestling in a corner of the south, took 
Mexico's own cue when Yturbide, in 1821, founded his 
short-lived empire, and proclaimed independence. This 
last was a matter of trifling importance compared 
with the subsequent loss of Texas and New Mexico, 



166 MEXICO 

which deeply stirred the land of Montezuma at a 
time when young Porfirio Diaz was obtaining his first 
impressions. 

Texas was finally ceded to the United States by the 
treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. Thus Mexico 
lost one of her most important possessions, in- 
cluding that beautiful old, still Spanish, town San 
Antonio. 

Naturally, the Mexican people (1915) thought the 
States wanted more territory, and that the feeble dis- 
play of a handful of troops, with a great many parley- 
ings, meant the annexation of Sonora, and, indeed, of 
all the north, so particularly favoured by Americans 
for its ore, its smelting and its. fine cattle ranches. 

That great statesman and seer General Smuts spoke 
of South Africa as the greatest romance of modern 
history. Is not Mexico one of the greatest historical, 
racial and linguistic romances of both ancient and 
modern history ? 

When one seeks for a reason for Mexico's internal 
embroilment, one finds there are many: 

Education in embryo is like a half-cooked apple. 

Poverty which looks upon wealth at close quarters 
has a nasty galling itch. 

Superstition and the fear of Hell (fostered by the 
priests) make cowards. 

Want of organized political voting does not rouse 
parliamentary enthusiasm. 

These scoopings of wealth out of a country by 
foreigners are mistrusted. 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 167 



Unfair land distribution, and country life far, far 
from trains and civilization, do not encourage ambition 
or profound thought. 

Result — a populace of millions far below the standard 
of education, moral, social or political, of the United 
States or Great Britain. 

Once roused, these people soon get out of hand and 
give trouble. The Mexican is a child of nature, pic- 
turesque, poetic, musical, brave, but a child from the 
cradle to the grave. 

Great Britain has been far too lethargic about 
Mexico. The only people really interested were those 
with money invested in the country. As one railway 
after another passed its dividends, as one mine after 
another had to be abandoned, and the water was allowed 
to rise and play havoc with all the internal structural 
works of the borings, they had felt uneasiness at the 
depreciation of their capital, and disgust at the want 
of law and order. Beyond that they cared nothing. 
Above all, Britain did not wish to rouse the States' ire, 
and felt the States were nearer the chaos, and were, 
therefore, the rightful people to move ; but President 
Wilson is not easily moved, and he played hide 
and seek with Mexican affairs just as he did later 
with the European war for nearly three terrible 
years. 

But one day the whole of Great Britain rose in an 
outburst of intense indignation. Every paper in the 
land had huge headlines, befitting the occasion (1914), 
To give a few : 



168 MEXICO 

MURDER OF AN ENGLISHMAN. 

MEXICAN OUTRAGE. 

ENGLISHMAN FOULLY MURDERED IN MEXICO. 

MURDER MOST FOUL. 

Then — but not till then — our people woke up to the 
realization of the sufferings, outlawry, plunder, murder, 
misery, villainy, devastation and godlessness of Mexico 
in the year 1914. 

What had happened was that an Englishman, who 
for many years had lived in. Mexico, and owned mines 
and other property in a northern province, had been 
foully murdered by Villa or by his followers. Living in 
the country which had been the scene of the so-called 
Constitutionalists, Mr. Benton had got to know Villa, 
and had suffered a good deal from his pillaging. His 
cattle had been driven off by Villa's band of outlaws, 
and his property burnt. They were again overrunning 
his lands, and he determined to see Villa and remon- 
strate. It appears to be the fact that he went to the 
rebel leader's camp unarmed. 

What actually occurred before Mr. Benton's death 
is still unknown. 

According to the story first given out, Mr. Benton 
saw Villa in his room. With the rebel leader was his 
aide-de-camp. Mr. Benton, a hot-tempered man, 
loaded Villa with reproaches for the ill deeds of his 
followers, and became violently abusive and excited. 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 169 

Thereupon he was shot down, either by Villa himself 
or by the revolver of his aide-de-camp. 

The British Government made representations, 
whereupon Villa produced the report of a court martial, 
perfect in form, signed, sealed and delivered — perfect 
in everything except facts. It was to the effect thaJ' 
Benton, having attempted to assassinate Villa whei 
in his office, was seized, and handed over to a court 
martial, which, after taking the evidence — the prisoner 
being represented by counsel — sentenced him to death, 
and that accordingly he was shot. The whole story was 
preposterous, and a few days later was given up by its 
inventors for another a little more plausible. 

According to the report of a commission of inquiry, 
which, however, was refused permission to see the 
body, and was obliged to accept such hearsay evidence 
as it could pick up, Mr. Benton was actually murdered 
in a train. The whole affair was wrapped in mystery. 

Washington, now officially made aware by British 
diplomatic action that some at least of the Constitu- 
tionalists were not wholly trustworthy, and somewhat 
unlikely to inspire confidence, intervened, and gave 
a number of orders to the rebels, to none of which was 
any attention paid. General Villa declined to surrender 
the body, or to exhume it, and although Washington 
showed far more energy in the case of this one English- 
man than it had done when numbers of its own nationals 
had been murdered or robbed or kidnapped by the 
rebels, it was snubbed by its own protSgSs. Villa knew 
perfectly well America had no troops with which to 



170 MEXICO 



coerce him, and that during the three years intervening 
since Diaz' departure the United States had done httle 
or nothing to increase her army ; that her handful of 
twenty-five thousand men was nothing to his milHons 
of more or less armed, but always desperate and wholly 
patriotic Mexicans, with the hatred of Americans deep 
down in their hearts — that same hatred of one's neigh- 
bour which unhappily exists between Ireland and Great 
Britain. Wilson dared not tackle the problem, and 
if 'tis true that the oil interests and banking interests 
were financing the rebels to make a position arise that 
must claim war and final protection from the States, 
these people who planted their money for higher stakes 
lost it. General Villa ignored its Commissions of 
Inquiry. General Carranza told the deep-voiced 
pacifist Bryan that Benton had been a British subject, 
and that representations as to his case must come from 
Great Britain, through a diplomatic representative 
properly accredited to him ; any others would be 
disregarded. 

For a fortnight Mr. Bryan suffered diplomatic rebuffs 
of this type ; nothing was done, and on March 6th he 
abandoned the case. At the end of the month the 
policy of " watchful waiting " had not achieved any 
great success, and the prestige of Washington was less 
imposing than it might have been. So much for the 
diplomatic situation. 

Dozens of stories and romances surrounded Benton's 
murder. It was attributed to all sorts of different 
people, and all sorts of different causes, and it is hardly 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 171 



likely that the truth will ever be known. It was the 
one absorbing event of the moment, but the interest 
evaporated almost as rapidly as it had risen. 

The chapter was hardly closed, and only a week or 
two had passed, when an insult, or a supposed insult, 
was offered to the American ^a^. Excited by patriotism, 
and delirious for the honour of their cherished Star- 
spangled Banner, from New York to San Francisco, 
from the shores of Lake Ontario to Southern Florida, 
American throats shouted for war. 

That American flag is a prodigious emblem, one must 
remember, and rightly so. We Britons only began to 
acclaim our flag properly by Empire Day, 1917, and 
yet Lord Meath had founded Empire Day on which 
to hang our flag years before, with only mild success. 
America's love of its flag is something we might copy 
with advantage ; it is the very backbone of American 
patriotism. 

Long before they entered the European war in the 
summer of 1917, and the flag thereby became of even 
-more importance, in America every little alien was 
taught how he must respect his new flag. He was 
taught in every grade of school in the land (beginning 
at the creches) to march before it, to salute it, to know 
all about it ; how every star represents a State ; but, 
alas ! he was also taught how the hated English 
oppressed the people and then had to evacuate ; how 
America was the greatest land on God's earth, and the 
Americans are the luckiest of His people ; how the flag 
must be honoured ; how the flag stands for independence 



172 MEXICO 



and wealth and power ; how he had only to follow it, 
to be ground into the American mill and possibly 
emerge President of the United States himself. Flag, 
flag, flag everywhere. It is a fine idea — a splendid 
idea. It makes patriots. It teaches respect to that 
one thing, even if education otherwise leaves the word 
"respect " most respectfully alone. 

Certainly we cannot do better than follow this most 
excellent American example of national banner worship. 



A small party of marines fxom one of the war boats 
that off and on for years patrolled the Mexican coast 
had gone ashore, unarmed, in their pinnace from the 
United States warship at Tampico (famous for its 
tarpon fishing), landing at a wharf. It was afterwards 
stated that orders had been given that no one should 
use that particular wharf, which was reserved for the 
Mexican Government. The American marines, once 
ashore, were arrested by the captain of the Federal 
troops, and marched through the streets as prisoners. 

To make the insult still graver, indeed, one marine is 
said to have been hauled off the boat over which the 
Stars and Stripes were actually flying. This was, by 
recognized law, floating American territory. It was 
an insult, a crass insult to the American flag. 

The arrest was reported to Mexico City, and by 
President Huerta's orders the American marines were 
liberated, though only after some hours' detention. The 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 173 



situation had never been so grave before. America 
will stand much, even a Lusitania episode — but hands off 
their American flag. 

On learning of this outrage the American admiral 
demanded an immediate apology, and that the Mexican 
forts at Tampico should salute the American flag. 
Although ready to give the apology, Huerta refused the 
salute, but afterwards, in reply to representations 
from Washington, he offered the salute on condition 
that it should be returned by the American warships. 

This demand was regarded by excited American 
opinion as a further insult. 

And so, in the early days of April, 1914, Mexico and 
the United States were embroiled, and once again 
Mexico became a theatre where bloody scenes were 
likely to be enacted, and strife seemed imminent. A 
United States fleet was hurried in hot haste to Vera 
Cruz, ships were called up from north, south, east and 
west ; telegraph wires flashed wild messages in every 
direction ; wise folk wagged their heads, and said that 
the war between Briton and Boer was to be repeated 
between the United States and Mexico. Down went the 
stocks, up went imaginations, and a veritable hurly- 
burly was at hand. 

Be it remembered, at that time Europe was at peace. 
No one dreamed of war except Germany, and yet, as 
subsequent events proved three months later, she had 
been perpetually dreaming of war for thirty long years. 
No doubt good William was as delighted at the im- 
broglio between Mexico and the States as he was at that 



174 MEXICO 



between England and Ireland. He thought all these 
countries were so busy locally that they could not move 
outside, and Belgium and France would become his 
easier prey. And he himself stirred up America's hatred 
of Japan as another silent act of his great scheme. 

My prophecy in a little article in the Daily News, 
April 17th, 1914, had quickly come true.* 

" If the United States declares war on Huerta all 
Mexico will combine and join forces." Barely a week 
passed. Vera Cruz was hardly invaded before its 
evacuation was demanded by General Carranza in the 
north. He and Villa represented the borderland. 
At that time Huerta represented the south and middle, 
and the bulk of the people, but was still unacknow- 
ledged by Wilson. 

Huerta and Carranza had been at one another's 
throats; but the moment the war note sounded both 
were ready to fight the States. 

What did it all end in ? 

Threats — and great big threats — were rife, but deeds, 
and only little deeds, took place. The Customs House 
was seized, and the small body of Mexican troops in 
Vera Cruz, under Commander Maas, having offered 
resistance by firing from the flat house-roofs, the whole 
town was occupied by the Americans. In a few hours' 
desultory fighting the United States lost more men 
than in the whole Cuban War. 



* About this time the writer was constantly being rung up by leading 
London newspapers for information in regard to special events in 
Mexico. 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 175 



That sounds terrible and blood-curdling, but really 
it was not, as report says that the total number of men 
lost on the American side amounted to nineteen killed 
and eighty-two wounded. 

Then a veil of mystery overspread the scene. The 
salute demanded was still refused. The thunder of the 
great guns, the telegrams, cables, messages, and what 
not ended in nothing, until three of the Southern Latin 
Republics, commonly known as the " A. B. C." (Argen- 
tina, Brazil and Chili), came forward, and, small as 
they were in population as compared with the United 
States, Uncle Sam actuall}^ listened to the proposals 
they offered with the promise of mediation. The 
Argentine no doubt led, Brazil followed, and Chili 
came behind ; as none of the three had acknowledged 
Huerta it was easy for them to act in the case. 

A pretty situation, truly, for the United States, with 
its hundred millions of people, was in a hole, and must 
l^erforce accept the mediation of Argentina, with its 
seven millions, Brazil with its seventeen millions, and 
Chili with its four millions. Remember, too, that ex- 
President Roosevelt went a trip to South America in the 
autumn of 1913. He was feted and feasted in Brazil 
and the Argentine, made all sorts of wonderful speeches 
retailing the virtues of the United States and the Monroe 
Doctrine, carefully explaining that, although North 
America was their staunch friend and ally. North 
America was a very great and very strong country of 
great power. So while he was patting them on the back 
he was wisely shaking the big stick with the other hand. 



176 MEXICO 



But no one approved more heartily of British coloniza- 
tion than that great American. After he vacated the 
Presidential chair he travelled all over Africa, north, 
south, east and west. On his way home he was in 
London, when he avowed many times that the thing 
that had struck him the most on his travels was the 
British young man. Very young, in many cases, ruling 
vast tracts of land and strange peoples with wisdom and 
command. He attributed this self-reliance, this justice 
and wise rule to our public schools. An American 
public school is equivalent to our County Council school ; 
our public school is the most private and select affair 
in education, and utterly misnamed. 

Roosevelt declared the British were born colonizers, 
and he was going back to America to try and foster that 
same class of education and power of rule in his own 
country. 

General Smuts, who has proved himself a political 
seer as well as a man of action, pays Great Britain the 
same compliment and, after fighting against her and 
being conquered in arms, has been won over to her 
methods of wise rule and permissible expansion to such 
an extent that he has taken up arms against the aggres- 
sive Prussian on behalf of his foster mother. 

Germany always lacked the power of colonization. 
She took her police rule along with her. She allowed 
no individual expansion, her colonies were corrupt 
morally and financially ; and it would be a poor day 
for Mexico, already herself suffering from those two 
deficiencies, if Germany took her shattered government 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 177 



and land under the Prussian eagle's rule — for the 
Mexican eagle is a mild bird with drawn claws when 
compared with the Prussian raptor. 

We learned our lesson from our utter misrule in 
America, a bitter lesson which later bore good fruit 
and made us the greatest colonizers of the world. 

How Gilbert would have laughed ! How truly 
savouring of comic opera the whole Mexican situation 
was. And all would have been saved if the erudite 
professor and historian, President Wilson, had been a 
little less ready in theory to subdue the Mexican States. 

A curious position, forsooth. Wilson refused to 
acknowledge Huerta in any way. Huerta offends, and 
then Wilson demands an apology from him as " repre- 
sentative of Mexico." Gilbertian, verily ! 

One must remember the United States' is a republic. 
It is hidebound by the Monroe Doctrine, which forbids 
interference, and President Wilson was therefore within 
his rights to stand aside and play cat and mouse with 
Mexico, as he did with the Kaiser only a few months 
later ; but as time went on, as the third year of the 
terrible European war drew to a close, even he, with all 
his American traditions, saw that his country must 
break her shackles or never expect to hold up her head 
among the great nations of the world who were fighting 
for freedom against militarism. That he must, for- 
sooth, combat for democracy against absolutism. 
That to do so was essential to the peace and wellbeing 
of the world. He was slow to move, but, having moved, 
quick to act. All honour to him. 'Tis true Germans 

12 



178 MEXICO 

still hold Belgium, Serbia and part of France, because 
they had walked in and outraged these countries before 
we had realized such violation was possible ; but 
Germany was beaten before the States came in. Her 
back was broken on land ; after the first unexpected 
rush every plan had been frustrated. We had retaken 
Bagdad, were over her impregnable lines in France. We 
had kept the wide oceans open. We had raised a largely 
voluntary army of nearly ten millions, equipped and 
sent them to the field. Germany held a few thousand 
British prisoners, and we held more than double the 
number of German prisoners, while not a vessel, other 
than submarine, could put her nose out of a German 
port. 

We had drained our coffers to the tune of seven 
million pounds a day, two millions of which went direct 
to the Allies, but we welcomed the moral force of 
America in May, 1917, and looked to her financial help, 
for we had been paying her in our gold for two years 
and nine months — although what is gold in comparison 
to the tens of thousands of young lives sacrificed by 
the Allies in the bloodiest war and carnage of history ? 

We had no more need to go into that war than 
America had to go into Mexico — but we went, and went 
at a few hours' notice, to save our neighbours across 
the Channel. We planted 100,000 men silently in France 
in ten days, before anyone knew they were there. And 
veril}'^ our little box of tin soldiers proved to be men of 
iron build and steel grit. They stayed the first onrush 
of the Huns for Paris, and the survivors of that valiant 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 179 

Expeditionary Force became an inspiration to the New 
Army, and helped to train it to the wonderful perfec- 
tion it achieved. 



The Vera Cruz episode may be put down, in some 
measure, as the fault of Admiral Badger. It was the 
sort of thing which need not have happened ; but when 
people are on edge with one another cuts easily ensue. 

Meanwhile, as weeks passed during the assembly of a 
Conference at Niagara Falls — the first meeting was 
held May 20th, 1914 — to discuss this war which was not 
war, and find some way out of a ridiculous situation, 
the Constitutionalists of M»cico — the party, that is, of 
Carranza and Villa — inflicted a decisive defeat on 
Huerta's forces and seized Tampico, the richest oil- 
field in Mexico, the United States warships looking on. 
And with all the display of force President Wilson's 
Government had assembled on the Mexican coast — 
battleships, cruisers, destroyers and what not, in all 
thirty ships — it was left to a young British naval 
officer, Commander Hugh Tweedie, of H.M.S. Essex, 
to go unarmed to Mexico City, with a couple of orderlies, 
also unarmed, and a native interpreter, and safely bring 
out the American refugees. Pluerta would give no 
undertaking of safe conduct : his ministry obstructed, 
and a Mexican colonel talked of shooting everj-^one, but 
by dint of daring resourcefulness Commander Tweedie 
escorted the Americans to safety. 

12* 



180 MEXICO 

Howbeit, if it seemed absurd at the outset for the 
American situation to be settled by the less important 
" A. B. C." countries, one must remember that the 
Monroe Doctrine prevented European intervention. 
South and Central, like North America, come under 
the heading of " The Americas." 

What did all this do ? 

It lowered the power of the United States, it showed 
the daring strength of the " A. B. C.'s " and it strength- 
ened the hand of General Huerta in Mexico. Time was 
going on. The last days of April had arrived, the great 
heat of the tropics was beginning to descend on Tampico, 
Vera Cruz and that wonderful mountain pass between 
Vera Cruz and the capital, where the train ascends 
ten thousand feet from the sea, to descend again over 
two thousand to Mexico City. 

It was a terrible problem the United States had to 
face, and one that the scholarly President had apparently 
never taken into consideration. 

It would be easy to annex Northern Mexico. It is 
flat and ugly and dull, just like Texas and Arizona, 
which they had already taken ; but to annex the north 
is a very different business from annexing the south. 
The wealth of populace, the wealth of land and wealth 
of gold all lie in the south, and there Mexico is united to 
a man in its deadly hatred of the American, as was 
shown by the fact that the only way Americans could 
get out of the city to shelter was under the protection 
of another flag. 

By May 5th things had reached a climax. 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 181 

President Wilson and the United States were sitting 
on a fence, still maintaining that they were not " at 
war " with Mexico, but " in a sort of a state of war" — 
a condition of things oddly prophetic of that 
which was to obtain between Germany and America 
in March, 1917 — and although they did not acknow- 
ledge General Huerta, they distinctly requested that 
General Huerta should be " eliminated." Truly an 
impasse. 

If Huerta was not acknowledged how could he be 
asked to retire or " eliminate himself " ? 

If the United States were not " at war " with Mexico 
what right had they to be landing troops and berthing 
ships at Tampico and Vera Cruz ? 

What was the good of Wilson, Bryan and Co. trying 
to negotiate with Carranza and Villa, two bandits of the 
north, who controlled few men, and counted for very 
little themselves ? 

Verily a curious position; and as these Constitu- 
tionalists were able at any moment to float millions of 
gallons of boiling oil down the river at Tampico, where 
many of the American ships lay at anchor, they — the 
Constitutionalists — were in no mean position. 

In years to come it is probable that the whole situa- 
tion will be looked upon as a farce, and certainly it will 
be many years before Mexico regains her balance, 
shaken by her delirious success against America, or 
settles back into that state of wondrous prosperity in 
which it was left by General Diaz. 

At any rate, the United States retired from Mexico^ 



182 MEXICO 

and, in view of her military unpreparedness, perhaps 
it was well that she did so. Even at a much later date 
it was estimated that she had about as much ammuni- 
tion as would last her through an action of twenty-four 
hours, with an army of some thousands of men, its 
lighting strength being about equal to that of two 
German divisions. 

Later America, hke ourselves, had to improvise an 
army for the great war, and, like ourselves, she set 
about the task with due grimness and vigour. 



In regard to Captain Tweedie's rescue of the 
prisoners, it will be seen, from the account in the next 
chapter, that he accomplished a really difficult and 
dangerous job. \yithin three days of the American 
landing at Vera Cruz, the communications had been 
cut, and as nothing was known as to the position of 
the American refugees in Mexico, great fear was enter- 
tained for their safety. Americans, realizing to the 
full his fine achievement, were, according to their own 
press, most grateful to him. President Wilson himself 
sent him a letter of thanks. 

In writing to me of the affair, an American friend 
in Mexico remarked as follows : 

" We are in a most inglorious mess, dishonourable 
and unworthy of our civilization, and in this matMiia 
country when will it all end ? 

*' The English here have been bright angels to us, 



ENGLISHMAN MURDERED 183 



ble«s them, heaping coals upon those who did not 
protect their own men." 

The Xr.c York Tribune spoke thus of the rescue : 

" J'na Cruz, April '29Xh. — The hero of the hour here 
to-day was Commander TAveedie, of the British cruiser 
Essed'. But hke a modest sailor the plucky Scots- 
man left most of the talking of his deeds to his 
interpreter. 

" Tweedie's mission to Mexico City was a brilliant 
success, thanks entirely to the British officer's deter- 
mination and insistence. In spite of opposition from 
Huerta, Commander Tweedie saved every American 
left in the Mexican capital, three trainloads of them. 
He also snatched from the hands of a Mexican colonel 
at Soledad 118 Americans who were threatened with 
death in twelve hours. 

*' He brought the 113 here with him yesterday. 
They were all farmers from the ^lerida colony in 
Oa.vaca, who had been thrown into jails in Tinra 
Blatica, Orizaba and Cordoba. Ten of the women had 
babes in their arms. All were weeping as they de- 
scended from the train here and wrung Commander 
T\N'eedie by the hand, thanking him as their deliverer. 

" It is believed that Tweedie has left behind him 
such a wholesome respect for the foreigner that there 
will be no more trouble. The danger is not so much 
from Huerta and his men as from the mobs, but Huerta 
and those in authority under liim have the power to 



184 MEXICO 

control the populace should they wish, and it is thought 
that now they will wish. 

" According to the story told by Franko, the inter- 
preter, it was good to see Tweedie lashing the British 
lion's tail in Huerta's face. Huerta tried to get out of 
it by saying the trains would be operated by and in 
charge of Englishmen. Tweedie would take nothing 
less than the provision of protection. 

" Huerta's final stroke of obstinacy was that he 
would allow none of the American refugees to be 
brought away on Commander Tweedie' s train. As it 
turned out, this was a piece of luck." 



CHAPTER XI 



A SAILOR S NARRATIVE 



THE following are jottings from the log of a young 
sailor and his friend who chanced to be an eye- 
witness of the Tampico affair. Let us remember 
— the nomenclature of these groups being confusing 
enough — that the Federals are General Huerta's troops, 
the Constitutionalists (or " Rebels," as the diarist 
calls them) those of Villa and Carranza. 

" We arrived at Vera Cruz early in February, 1914, 
when everything looked peaceful and no one thought 
of a coming storm. 

" On February 18th, as the position was getting a 
bit shaky, a lieutenant, with Maxim guns, was sent to 
the British Legation. America lifted her embargo 
on the importation of arms. Bad news next day. 
An English farmer, Benton by name, said to be a hot- 
tempered fellow, was shot by that uneducated bandit, 
Villa. The latter has been committing atrocities all 
over the country. At one place, we heard, he captured 
three hundred young women and turned them over to 
his troops. Many of these poor things were ladies of 

1S5 



186 MEXICO 



good family. One mother and daughter committed 
suicide, with good reason — and actually with the same 
razor. Should imagine these devilments, with the 
Benton business to crown them, will bring things to 
a head. 

"It is reported that a great many Japanese are. 
arriving in Mexico City — fleeing from the wrath to 
come, I should think. Huerta's grip of things is 
certainly getting loosened : a pretty bad job for 
everyone. 

" On March 11th we landed at Tampico and had a 
good look at Huerta's entrenchments. These Federal 
works, as they call them, . were fully manned. The 
women were taking a hand in the job, too. There 
were heaps of them in the rifle-pits, cooking, flirting, 
and seemingly having a gay old time. Rather a 
sporting time, in a way, for the Rebels, as we called 
them — their own self-title of Constitutionalists didn't 
appeal much — were doing a certain amount of sniping 
as we moved about. The British Admiral (Cradock) 
was down on the men for keeping their womenfolk in 
danger ; but they replied ingenuously that the women 
wouldn't go unless they did. They couldn't go, 
naturally, and so the whole tea-party was left in full 
swing. The probability is that the Rebels won't get 
in so long as the Federals sit tight to their trenches 
and get decently supplied with ammunition. 

" There was an attack on Tampico on March 26th, 
and a big fight up country at Torreon. On April 7th 
the Rebels had another shot at the former, but didn't 



A SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 187 

get in. Things were getting pretty warm, with heavy 
losses on both sides, but a British ship, stationed up 
the river, reported that all the women and children were 
safely on board. Villa won't get tJiem, anyhow, 
though we heard that one poor woman — the Mexican 
wife of an Englishman — got killed by a shell. An 
American boat's crew was stopped and apparently 
arrested by the Federals. Their Admiral promptly 
demanded an apology and a salute from Huerta. 

" Heavy firing on April 11th, a Federal gun-boat 
shelling the Rebel position from the river. We landed 
to inspect the damage done to the oil-fields. No salute 
from stiff-back Huerta, so far. British Admiral sent 
up the river next day to consult with American 
Admiral Mayo about the latter's ultimatum. We went 
to the outer lines and watched the Red Cross ladies at 
work. The trenches were pretty unpleasant, as the 
dead, instead of being buried, had a gallon of oil 
poured over them and were then set on fire. Many 
of the poor chaps were but half-burnt. A deuce of a 
Norther (wind and dust storm) was blowing, so it was 
impossible to get back to our ship. Compromised 
matters with a shake-down at the local hotel — a pretty 
thirsty affair, for the Rebels had thoughtfully cut the 
water supply. 

" Still blowing hard on the 13th. We watched the 
Rebels busily destroying property, which included 
four hundred loaded railway trucks, containing 
machinery, wire rope and a few other things. The 
value of the whole swag was estimated at £50,000. 



188 MEXICO 

There were very few Rebels about, and nobody molested 
us ; but the wretched country folk, camping about 
and hiding in holes, have lost every stick they pos- 
sessed. Admiral Mayo cleared for action and came 
near to bombarding, but afterwards decided to refer 
the situation to Washington. In the evening we went 
out to the lines again ; the stench was appalling and 
the mosquitoes were a buzzing terror. The Rebels had 
withdrawn. 

" The Mexicans still refuse to give the salute 
demanded by the American Admiral. Probably 
Huerta will stubbornly hold out against it ; nor is it 
likely that Zaragossa, his General commanding at 
Tampico, would accord it, even under Huerta's orders. 

" April 21st saw the first American landing at 
11 a.m. For some reason or other the Mexicans did 
not oppose the disembarkation, but as soon as the 
American troops left the quay firing broke out. To 
cover the operation the American cruiser Prairie 
opened fire on the town. The firing went on all day ; 
but, doubtless faced by heavy odds, the small American 
force could make little headway. At sunset, after 
losing nine killed and twenty wounded — the Mexican 
casualties amounting to a hundred — they withdrew to 
the vicinity of the railway st^ition. 

" At 2 a.m. next day, the American Atlantic fleet 
arrived, and immediately proceeded to land more 
men. At daybreak their ships, Chester and San 
Francisco, opened a heavy bombardment, the latter 
having entered the inner hai'bour during the night. 



A SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 189 



By eight o'clock the Americans were advancing, under 
a very heavy fire, many shots hitting their ships. A 
paymaster was shot through the legs while watching 
the fight. Half an hour later the American troops 
advanced in close order across the space in front of 
the Naval Academy. Seeing that, when half-way 
across, they were commanded by every window and 
roof, one feared they would be all wiped out. But 
the Chester opened fire over their heads and literally 
blew the Naval Academy to pieces, although some of 
the cadets pluckily went on firing all the time. 
Happily, the Mexican firing was execrable, so that the 
seemingly doomed force lost no more than eight killed 
and forty wounded. A flag of truce was hoisted at 
10.30. 



" On the 25th of the month a British Commander, 
Hugh Tweedie, of the Essex, came on the tapis. His 
job, a pretty stiff one, was to take a train out through 
the Mexican lines and retrieve certain American refugees. 
He mopped them up, a few miles out of Tampico, and 
brought them safely in. 

" Next day another cutting-out job fell to the lot of 
the same oflicer. Captain Tweedie started at three 
o'clock in the morning, with a Senor Franko to interpret 
for him, two flags — a Union Jack and a white flag — ■ 
for the information and enlightenment of all whom 
they might concern, and a liumorously trifling escort 



190 MEXICO 



of two men. Not a big party, but compact — and 
sportsmanlike. The Americans ran them out to rail- 
head. 

" After this the beflagged invaders had to walk 
through the intense heat, cheered by the sight of peons 
tearing up the railway track and burning the wooden 
sleepers. The first Mexican patrol officer they encoun- 
tered passed them on. In another mile they found 
themselves up against a bigger proposition in the shape 
of an armed crowd, not in uniform, covering them with 
their rifles. Sefior Franko, not knowing who the 
probable shooters were, found the position disagree- 
able ; but the compact quartet strode on boldly to 
within fifty or sixty yards of the nearest amateur 
bandit, or whatever he might be, who was snugly 
ensconced among the bushes. The disagreeable position 
was fast getting critical, when an individual appeared 
about three hundred yards down the track, and 
promptly gave an order which brought all his men to 
their feet. The welcome intervener turned out to be 
a friend of Franko's. He was concerned, apologetic, 
even a little upset. He said with emotion that he was 
glad his crowd had not drawn trigger ; the compact 
little squad were not a whit less glad. 

" Arrived at Teheria station, they found no amateur 
bandits, but only an officer, off duty and ripe for 
conversation. This courteous officer went further : 
he got hold of an engine and truck, and so forwarded 
the squad, sticking tight to their flags, to Soledad. 

" At Soledad — about two hundred miles west of 



A SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 191 



Tampico — Captain Tweedie had an interview with 
General Maas, who gave him a passport and sent him, 
with his small following, by train to Mexico City. 

" Here it was found that the position of the Americans 
was critical. Seven hundred of them wanted to get 
clear of the dangerous city ; but Huerta demurred, 
partly because he didn't know what might happen to 
the unfortunate refugees on their way down to the 
coast. Tweedie, though helped by the British Minister, 
failed to get an interview with Huerta, but did contrive 
one with General Blanquet. The General agreed to 
run trains, not by the route just followed, but down to 
Puerto Mexico (formerly Coatzacoalcos), at the very 
bottom of Campeachy Bay. Each train was to be in 
charge of two Englishmen. 

" Having settled this matter. Captain Tweedie went 
back to the Legation, asking for volunteers for his 
own train back to Tampico. Six leading men of the 
city offered themselves — greatly to their credit, for 
no one knew at the time what would come of the 
adventure. At 10 p.m. they started, with dispatches 
from Huerta and all the Legations, their train guarded 
by fifty men and an officer (Blanquet's own). 

" Reaching Soledad at noon, April 28th, they found 
more refugees, one hundred in number. These included 
men, women and children, all American, who had been 
in prison five days and had a rough time. The officer 
was not inclined to let them go ; but we hear the re- 
resourceful Tweedie got him to wire General Maas, 
personally from himself, and so secured their release. 



192 MEXICO 



He took all the poor souls into his saloon, and, being 
luckily well stocked with provisions, he was able to 
feed and comfort them. At Teheria the captain of the 
guard made trouble, and coolly backed the train into a 
siding. But he also was successfully got round by the 
Commander (who supplemented an eloquent tongue 
with a bottle of beer), and in half an hour the train was 
under way again. The next bunker consisted of a 
six-mile span of torn-up rails, which compelled a heavy 
trudge through intense heat for the unfortunate women 
and children. One woman, collapsing, had to be carried 
in a blanket. It was lucky for these poor things that 
Tweedie, who knew nothing of their presence here, 
came along. They had been rounded up from the 
Cordova district, all the women being taken to one 
place and the men to another. The men, of course, 
were wild, but it turned out afterwards that no harm 
had come to the women. They were all put in prison 
more for their own safety against the mob than for 
anything else, and after four or five days the women 
and children were brought back and all put in a train 
and sent off to Soledad, where Tweedie found them. 
They had lost everything and were in a pitiable state, 
having had no washing or other conveniences, and 
there were gentlewomen among them. When they had 
asked for food and drink at Soledad, the Mexican guard 
had laughed and said : ' You will all be shot at sunset ; 
why worry about food ? ' 

" Of course, they wouldn't have been shot, but you 
can imagine how scared they were ! One poor woman 



A SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 198 

had a baby ten days old with her. Tweedie got them 
all into the American lines, and turned them over to 
an American officer, and himself walked across country 
to the street car to dodge reporters. All were naturally 
anxious about the Puerto Mexico party, feeling re- 
sponsible on their account. They arrived safely on 
April 30th. 



" At 2.30 a.m. on May 13th a heavy night attack on 
Tampico developed. A British steamboat, protected 
by bullet-proof boiler-plates, was sent up the river. 
The party found the outer river in the hands of the 
rebels ; stopped and interviewed the picket, then 
proceeded up river and had a dramatic five minutes. 

" A sudden tropical storm burst ; the thunder was 
terrific, and it blew and rained in torrents. At the 
worst of it they had to pass the Federal gunboats ; 
the Rebels, taking advantage of the storm, crept down 
to the beach ; the gunboats were pumping shell at 
the banks as fast as they could load. Our fellows had 
to pass between them ; it was impossible to see more 
than a few yards, but they could just catch the flashes 
of the guns, and it was extraordinary their steamboat 
wasn't hit. 

" They arrived alongside the Hermione just as she 
parted her cable ; her quarter-deck awning blew away 
and she went on the mud. 

" Our chaps had really come up to sit on a court 

13 



194 MEXICO 



martial, one of the strangest ever held one would think. 
As they sat, the town right alongside was being taken 
by the Constitutionalists (party of Villa and Carranza), 
and they just finished the court in time to see the last 
act. 

" Four trains, crowded, went off down the line ; then 
came a rearguard action, followed by a retirement at 
the double ; then a few mounted Rurales galloped up, 
and it was nice to see them pick up some of the 
straggling infantry and ride off pillion fashion, only one 
or two of the last ones being caught and shot. 

" Bravo and Progresso gunboats steamed down river 
and out to sea. 

" Vera Cruz steamed up river, and as the last Federal 
went over she blew down the bridge and then sank 
herself. 

" It was a fine orderly retirement by the Mexicans, 
and one couldn't help being very sorry for Zaragossa, 
the Huertist General : he had fought well and hard for 
six months, and now failed for want of ammunition." 



CHAPTER XII 



HUERTA — CARRANZA VILLA 



THERE is an old saying that " fools rush in where 
angels fear to tread." This may apply to 
Great Britain and the United States. Great 
Britain certainly rushed into the hurly-burly of war, 
having given her protecting name to a certain Scrap 
of Paper. 

An Englishman's word is his bond. Prussia rushed 
through Belgium to within, one might say, a dozen 
yards of Paris. Had she not been turned back, she 
would have rushed in here, there and everywhere, and 
we should all be under Kaiser William to-day. He 
devastated, destroyed, raped, burnt everything in his 
passage, and all Europe — aye, even Persia, India and 
China — might have been waste land to-day. Our little 
well-trained army turned the scale. He hates us for it. 

Everything Germany accomplished was done by 
surprise rush. No one was ready for their onslaughts, 
no one knew their intention of conquering the world 
by their sudden, well-prepared blow. 

It was a great coup, but it failed. Every nation 
stood breathless and aghast at their crimes, was stunned 

195 13* 



196 MEXICO 



by the cruelty and murder of their strokes. But they 
came to a standstill, and inch by inch were driven 
backwards month by month. 

It was all so terrible, so hideous. It put the world 
back to barbarism, and destroyed the art, architecture, 
cultivation and agriculture of centuries. It swept 
manly youth from the face of Europe. 

Nevertheless, seeing that no war was ever success- 
fully waged except for an ideal, these years of carnage 
developed for the Allies the greatest of ideals — to wit, 
the freeing of the world from domination by militarism 
and the frenzied megalomania of a single nation. 

But all this is looking ahead, and we must go back to 
three months before Europe was unexpectedly deluged 
with warfare. 



After the fall of Tampico there followed, through 
May, 1914, excesses on the part of the Constitutionalist 
forces. Villa's and Carranza's troops, far from being 
sobered by their achievement, proved as predatory as 
ever. The commander of a Dutch war vessel at 
Tampico reported a blackmailing campaign by the 
victorious Rebels. The Dutch sailors guarding the 
Great Corona oil-fields were so threatened, that he 
thought well to remove them. General Gonzales, the 
Constitutionalist leader, demanded a large sum of 
money from the Tampico Chamber of Commerce. 

America, in the person of Mr. Bryan, wired to 



HUERTA—CARRANZA- VILLA 197 

Carranza and Gonzales, demanding that they should 
behave themselves. They didn't. Much bullion was 
stolen from a British mine in Durango. General 
Funston, commanding the American troops, reported 
that the Mexicans had blown up the Inter-Oceanic 
bridge over the Antigua, twenty-eight miles from 
Vera Cruz. 

During this same month the Germans appeared upon 
the scene. Two of their steamers, the Ypiranga and 
the Bavaria of the Hamburg- America Line (closely 
related to the German Government), were fined a 
million Mexican pesos (about £100,000) for illegally 
landing arms and munitions at Puerto Mexico. General 
Funston stated that the officials had no option, under 
Mexican law, in the matter ; the German Ambassador 
at Washington put in a prompt protest against the 
fines. This was twelve weeks before the Great War, 
but no one realized the German move and its true 
import at the time. 

Things mended not a whit during the following 
weeks. Carranza defiantly refused to conclude the 
armistice demanded by the mediators, who met full of 
hopeless hope at Niagara Falls. The representatives of 
the " A. B. C." States should not dictate terms to him, 
the conqueror. Huerta, with more diplomatic " cor- 
rectitude," declared his willingness to retire as soon as 
Mexico was politically pacified, thereby frankly scoring 
ki the opinion of impartial observers. Meanwhile, 
the Ward Line's vessel Attila sailed from New York for 
Tampico (June 3rd) with a consignment of munitions. 



198 MEXICO 



The Peace Commissioners continued their game of chess 
at Niagara Falls, the Mexican capital being in an agony 
of expectation. There is no doubt about it, everyone 
expected the strong hand of intervention. 

By the middle of July, 1914, the affairs of Mexico 
had unquestionably come to a terrible pass. There 
was neither law nor order in that embroiled country, 
for the plain reason that General Huerta, the only 
man capable of straightening the tangle, was being 
ousted by America. Had the States taken the advice 
of the majority of her own nationals, who knew Mexico 
from the inside, and decided to support Huerta in agree- 
ment with the wish of every- other country concerned, 
the trouble would have been settled in due course. 
Huerta was not only a strong man, but persona grata 
with a fair proportion of the Mexican people. He was 
not ideal, but he was by far the best of the bunch. 

Backed, moreover, as he was by Great Britain, 
whose recognition was followed by that of France, 
Russia, Spain and Germany, he could — had the States 
supported him also — have evolved order even from 
such a chaos as reigned at the time. But the scholarly 
President Wilson, knowing little of races and peoples, 
set aside this pregnant opportunity. He harked back 
to the point that he could not sanction a man who he 
believed had murdered Madero. Nor did he show his 
strength by ingeminating : " Peace, mind — or we 
step in ! " — words he reiterated again and again for 
nearly three years when confronted with the German 
trouble. 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 199 



Of course there is a great deal to be said for this 
attitude. It is difficult enough to rule any country, 
but the difficulties are manifold when that country 
is composed of a strong, heterogeneous population of 
many nations and many tongues, all of whom have to 
be brought into line to attain real success. 

Wilson was not strong enough — in fact, he did not 
take the war initiative until three years later, and then 
it was to combat a far more deadly enemy. By that 
time he had pulled his team together, his re-election 
was secure — and once he and the country saw where 
duty and wisdom lay, they fell to work like heroes. 

The United States may find themselves more united, 
through war, even with S. America, than they ever were'; 
conjoined as our great Imperial Commonwealth of Demo- 
cracies, with its Kingly President, has assuredly been. 

Germany's back was broken — and she knew it — 
before America came in, but her doing so lessened the 
dreary months ahead. One would apologize for refer- 
ring to the European War in this way were it not that 
Mexico is so closely woven into its history. 

So it came about that Mexico drifted into mere 
anarchy. True, the prosperity of the country must 
return eventually, for the land and its riches are there ; 
but for the present the people are lost. The old, 
simple Mexico is dead ; for six years the country 
wallowed in unrest and agitation, and another twenty 
must pass before a new and better generation can 
replace those ruined eighteen millions. For the time 
being they have become savages. 



200 MEXICO 



There were faults even in the former r^gmie. Liman- 
tour was so obsessed with Wall Street finance, Diaz 
himself was so obsessed with Limantour's financial 
talent, that both were regrettably blind and deaf. 
They made the fatal mistake of not listening to the 
land cry of the people, the demand for a saner form of 
ballot, and more technical education for the masses. 

And what of America ? 

Mexico was not the latter's only trouble. Colombia, 
Nicaragua, Santo Domingo and Haiti were all causing 
anxiety. Mr. Bryan, the Secretary of State, felt that 
Colombia had been badly treated in the loss of Panama 
by the revolution of 1913, and that the sum of £3,000,000 
was due to her. Others disagreed. As to Nicaragua, 
he desired to make of it a sort of financial protectorate. 

Santo Domingo was America's earliest experiment, 
under Roosevelt, in financial protectorates, and for 
some years the arrangement was a success ; but at the 
time of Huerta's abdication, disturbances were rife in 
Santo Domingo. The negro Republic of Haiti, too, 
was bubbling. 

None of these affairs tended to make the States 
more popular with the Latin-American races, and Great 
Britain Avas still dissatisfied with America's violation 
of the Panama charter, and Mexico — well, we have 
already glanced at Mexico's plight. Moreover, as wa3 
inevitable, Huerta had hardly stepped on board his 
ship before Carranza and Villa were at each other's 
throats ; and as rumour again pointed to mutiny and 
brigandage in Mexico City, Carbajal, the new-made 



IirKRTA CARKANZA VILLA I'Ol 

l*resident. was within twtMitv -tour hours slrainiiitj; every 
nerve to get forty tliousaml uumi ii\lo the capital. 

The next move was math' 1>\' Bryan, who int'ornied 
Carranza that, shouKl the C'onstitutionahsts ronxc to 
satisfactory terms with PresiihMit C'arbajal. the United 
States woulil give all the advantages of recognition to 
tht^ provisional go\-i>rnnienf . l''verything. tlurefort-, 
hinged upon the good conciuct o( the Const itntit)nai 
Party, and they at once declared tliat, thongii willing 
to treat with him, they considered Carhajal too con- 
servative CN en for his provisional post oi' President. 
Moreover, their agent in Kurt>pe [>ronoimced him un- 
acceptable. Carhajal, he stated, had always been 
identitied with the Diivz. rtl^gimc, and luid saveil the life 
of Felix Diaz, in Hat deiiance of the laws of his eoimtry. 
To accept Carbajal, he insisted, would be to recognize 
the actions of Huerta. Nor would it be necessary to 
recognize the Huerta loans. The Constitutionalists 
had other plans, and, when they had established a new 
government, would concentrate u[>on the eet>nomic 
and iinancial development of their country's possibilities. 

No one ever wH>rked more faithfully for his country 
tlian their INlinister to Great Britain, who had served 
Mexico in many lands — Scnor Covarrnbias. His personal 
wishes were always subservient to this desire to do what 
was best for Mexico. Absolutely honest, honest almost 
to a fault, he would luvve made an excellent President. 

Carbajal, the Provisional President, was oidy fort\- 
eight years old, a lawyer of distinction, and a man of 
good Castilian blood, and in personality totally unlike 



202 MEXICO 

Huerta. He had been Diaz' chosen peace commis- 
sioner to Madero, and was afterwards a right-hand 
man of Huerta' s, and for a short time Mexican Minister 
to London. He entered upon his new duties with the 
reputation of an honest and hberal man, respected by 
all classes, and began by re-establishing the freedom 
of the Press and negotiating with the Northern 
Constitutionalists. 

On July 21st Huerta and Blanquet sailed for Jamaica 
with their families, on board the German cruiser Dresden. 
Before embarking General Huerta formally thanked 
Captain Fanshaw, of H.M.S. Bristol, for the courtesies 
shown to his wife and family. He avowed himself to 
be no enemy of the United States. 

Next day it was reported from Washington that 
Carbajal and Carranza were to have a conference ; 
but the latter had no desire for an amnesty, and 
Carbajal would fight rather than throw over Huerta' s 
followers. Fighting was reported between the Zapa- 
tistas and Federals within twelve miles of the 
capital. 

Victorian© Huerta, the pure-blooded Indian, had 
struggled valiantly for seventeen long months ; at one 
time supported by his own country and by Europe, 
but always weakened by strokes in the back from the 
United States, for it is useless to pretend that Villa 
and Carranza were not " assisted " by the States. Of 
course they were. Though the pair were themselves 
outlaws and ruffians, they held sway in the north — 
that is, in parts contiguous to the states that had once 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 203 

been Mexico's, and are now the property of America — 
and hence were useful neighbours and allies. 

Great as America is, scholar and erudite philosopher 
as is President Wilson, both the country and its leader 
made grave and serious blunders in their handling of 
Mexico. Their attempt at armed interference was, as 
we have seen, singularly abortive, and the commander 
of their troops, General Funston, came to a somewhat 
mysterious end. The General reached the American 
border, only to fall sick and die. Is it possible that 
he met his death through poison ? 

On July 15th, 1914, Generals Huerta and Blanquet 
left for Puerto Mexico. Huerta had resigned the dic- 
tatorship of Mexico, and Senor Carbajal, formerly 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had been sworn in 
as Provisional President. A street demonstration was 
accorded to Huerta on his leaving the capital ; in reply 
to which he drank as his last toast, " To the new 
President of Mexico." But the transference of 
authority was effected without excitement or disorder. 

Huerta' s departure from his native land was a sad 
little affair, in marked contrast with the triumphant 
exit of Diaz (under the escort of Huerta himself) but 
three short years before. 

General Huerta, who at one time seemed to be 
the strong man so bitterly needed by his distracted 
country — now thoroughly disappointed and dis- 
heartened — made his way to England, where he spent 
two or three days trying to collect money. Failing 
any success in this attempt, he went on to Barcelona. 



204 MEXICO 

Here he was taken in hand — and heavily bribed — by a 
German agent. But meanwhile he was being carefully 
watched by the United States Secret Service. When, 
later, Huerta adjourned to the Mexican- American 
frontier, he was arrested on a charge of stirring up a 
revolution, in the German interest, against the States. 
He died in prison at the frontier town of El Paso in 
January, 1916, and so ended the possibility that had 
opened up a year before of tolerably good rule in 
Mexico under Huerta. 

This was the first time that Huerta had come under the 
influence of the Prussians, in whose favour the pendulum 
swung after the hard knock from the United States, 
who had so determinedly refused him their support. 

It may be added that at this time of the German 
intrigue with Huerta their mark was valued at a 
shilling. In 1917, before America entered the war, 
the German mark had gone down to 6|d., a little more 
than half its face value. 

Huerta was born at Colotldn in 1854, and made a 
somewhat romantic start in life. The General in 
charge of troops, entering Colotldn, asked for someone 
capable of writing a military report from dictation. 
Young Huerta, undertaking the job, showed so much 
intelligence and made so good an impression that he 
was reported to Benito Jukrez, and afterwards placed 
by the latter in the Military College, where he remained 
seven years. At twenty-three he was made a subal- 
tern of Engineers, and eulogized by the Director of 
the College. In 1912 he rose to the rank of General, 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 205 



and had been highly regarded by President Porfirio 
Diaz. On the resignation of Lascurain, Huerta, his 
Foreign Minister, became interim President. The rest 
of his public life, with the attribution to him by the 
States of the murder of Francisco Madero, has been 
sufficiently dealt with in these pages. 

When he was five-and-thirty, a little incident occurred 
illustrating Huerta' s unscrupulous vigour, as also the 
condition of Mexico at the time. He was riding, with 
a trifling escort, through a momitain pass near his 
station, when half a dozen masked men sprang from 
ambush and covered the party with their rifles. These 
were highwaymen belonging to a pretty well-known 
gang — that of Zegaza. The leader, having effected his 
capture, proceeded to make a bargain with Huerta, 
who agreed to give him full notice whenever the troops 
were out of the way and the coast clear. Thus would 
Zegaza and his bandits be free to harry at their leisure 
an undefended countryside. 

In true Mexican fashion the situation evolved itself. 
Huerta named a day on which the gang might safely 
play their pranks on the small storekeepers and others 
whose business it was to feed, clothe and comfort 
them gratuitously. Zegaza and his merry men rose 
to the occasion. They rode, revolver in hand, into the 
street of a quiet country town, and fell to business 
with cheerful alacrity — only to find themselves trapped. 
Huerta' s solders, ambushed hitherto, surroiuided and 
captured the whole gang, whose leader afterwards 
came to a fitting end at the hands of an execution party. 



206 MEXICO 



In regard to the recognition of Huerta, so insistently 
denied by the States, no one strove harder than that 
assiduous worker for the good of Mexico, Sir Lionel 
Garden, the British Minister. For that purpose, in 1913, 
he travelled for six weeks, under the most trying cir- 
cumstances, to spend one week in Washington and one 
week in London. It usually takes five or six days and 
nights to travel from New York to Mexico City ; 
through Mexico in rebellion the length of time was 
doubled. He considered Huerta, admittedly not an 
ideal ruler, to be at the time the only man capable of 
restoring peace to ravaged Mexico, and, therefore, 
strained every nerve to secure his proper recognition. 
Referring to the great influence of this British Minister, 
a leading correspondent wrote (May, 1914) : " Sir 
Lionel Garden appears to be the real power in Mexico 
City to-day. Garden is a name to conjure with, and 
foreigners regard him as their real protector." 

Garden failed. America was obdurate — and the 
failure killed him. Sir Lionel died a broken and 
disappointed man. 

Subsequent events proved how right he had been. 

In mid-September of the same year the American 
newspapers were much exercised about Sir Lionel 
Garden. He sailed for England on the 16th of the 
month, after — it was alleged — giving an interview in 
which President Wilson was criticized and Mexico 
declared to be in a state of anarchy. Sir Cecil Spring- 
Rice, the British Ambassador to the States, hereupon 
declared that in his opinion the interview was not 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 207 

authentic ; and Sir Lionel Garden next day sent from 
on board the Celtic a wireless message to the following 
ejffect ; 

" We made no statement whatever reflecting on the 
President's policy. The position of affairs when I left 
Mexico was deplorable, but not desperate." 

Whatever might be the differences of opinion, how- 
ever, between Sir Lionel and the Washington authorities, 
they certainly stood to support him against the strong 
animus of Carranza, who, aware of his Huertist sym- 
pathies, decided to give the British Minister his pass- 
ports ; for hereupon Washington brought pressure 
to bear upon Carranza, which induced him to stop 
short of harsh measures and content himself with a 
hint as to the Constitutionalists' desire to see Sir Lionel 
quit Mexico as soon as possible. He was a great 
gentleman, a real patriot, and luck went against him. 

On May 13th, 1914, it was reported from Vera Cruz 
that Americans were much dissatisfied with the 
entrusting of American interests to the Brazilian 
Minister instead of to Sir Lionel Carden. The latter 
had been instrumental in helping many, and his steady 
moral support of the Brazilian Minister had been 
invaluable. 

The abdication of Huerta having left Mexico prac- 
tically in the hands of Venustiano Carranza and Fran- 
cisco Villa — Seilor Carbajal being regarded rather as a 
transfer-agent than a President proper — let us take 
a further glance at these two leading Constitutionalists. 

Villa held sway over the northern region, with its 



208 MEXICO 



countless haciendas and arid levels spread with cattle 
ranches ; Carranza had fastened a no less strong grip 
upon the tropical south, with its rich and varied 
vegetation of rice, sugar, rubber, coffee and all tropical 
fruits, and its immense store of minerals — indeed, of 
almost every kind of mineral known to earth. 

And so once more let us try to disentangle the threads 
of this very tangled revolutionary story. 

In a previous chapter it was said that Carranza's 
ability to start so speedy a revolution against Huerta 
was due to the fact that, though governor of a state 
under Madero's presidency, he was already prepared 
to revolt against the latter.. It was after the assassina- 
tion of Madero that his ex-adherent rose to special 
prominence and captured the world's notice as, to use 
his self-appointed title, " The Chief of the Constitu- 
tionalist Army." 

This dignified, reticent, meditative man, Carranza, of 
good education but rough manner, had none of the 
flamboyance and glamour usually associated with 
Mexican revolutionary leaders. He gave to the New 
York T ivies, in 1915, the following account of his 
country, with what he had done, and proposed to do, 
for its benefit : 

" My ambition from the beginning was peace for 
Mexico. For that very reason I took up the banner of 
revolution against the dictator Huerta, because I knew 
that we could not have peace so long as injustices 
were committed in the name of liberty. 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 209 

" When Huerta was eliminated and the cause of 
ConstitutionaHsm triumphed, I begged General Fran- 
cisco Villa to forget all personal differences, meet me 
in Havana, and there come to an understanding. But 
at that time General Villa seemed the stronger and he 
was not seeking peace. He became a traitor and 
plunged his country into an unnecessary civil war, but 
now, when he has been vanquished, he is pleading for 
peace conferences. 

" The same thing happened with General Zapata. I 
sent special envoys to him in the name of Mexico 
to forget all differences, and promised to carry out 
his agrarian plan, but the personal ambition of his 
secretaries was greater than the needs of their country. 
They were seduced by the sweet words of General Villa, 
and now they, too, are eager for peace conferences. 
Have they forgotten that I sought peace many months 
ago, before unnecessary blood was shed, long before 
they were defeated ? But then none of those men 
would listen to me ! 

" In a few months both General Villa and General 
Zapata will be eliminated. And for that very reason 
I find it unnecessary to parley with them in peace 
conferences, much as I respect the kind offices of the 
United States and the Latin Republics. I am con- 
vinced that both have nothing but the welfare of 
Mexico at heart. I am sure they are seeking to estab- 
lish peace in our strife-worn country, and nothing else. 
But I disagree with their methods of procedure, not 
with their ideas. I feel that our enemies should be 

14 



210 MEXICO 

vanquished completely, or there will be no lasting 
peace in Mexico." 

Asked as to the chances for American investors in 
Mexico, he said : 

" Are you acquainted with the causes of the revolu- 
tion ? Let me give you a brief review of what is 
actually transpiring in oin- country. 

" The revolution in Mexico is not of a political nature. 
It is an economic revolution. It means the industrial 
awakening of Mexico. 

" Dining the days of Diaz the natural resources of 
the country were exploited by a few of his rich friends, 
who were given special concessions. Only those few 
developed the country. Others — Mexicans as well as 
foreigners — had no opportunities whatever. Mexico 
was a land of special privileges. This could not last 
for ever, and the result was the present revolution. 

"" Mexico is a country rich in natural resources, but 
all its wealth is merely potential. Money, and a great 
deal of it, has to be invested before we can utilize the 
riches of our coimtry. We know this very well, and 
for that reason we want foreigners to come and exploit 
our resoiu'ces, but they will come in the future under 
different conditions. 

" Mexico will no longer be a land of special privileges, 
but a land of a million opportmiities. It will be a 
covmtry where all will be given an equal chance. Yes, 
indeed, we want foreigners, but we expect them to come 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 211 



to Mexico under tlilfcrent conditions than they did in 
the days of Diaz. 

" They accuse us of being confiscators. A httle 
reasoning will immediately show the fallacy of such a 
thought. 

" Of what value could all the foreign property be to 
us even if we did confiscate it ? Mines, oil-fields and 
other property are of no value if they are not exploited. 
To confiscate them would mean nothing more than 
getting a white elephant on our hands. But when they 
are operated by their owners the Government derives 
a revenue from such properties, and that is what we 
are after. A close inspection will convince you that 
we need foreign capital, and, in return, we offer great 
opportunities, but the days of special privileges have 
gone, never to return. From the investor we expect 
nothing more than an equitable revenue, and for this 
he will be given the fullest protection of the laws of 
the country." 

So much for the views of Carranza, whose pronounce- 
ment, " I feel that our enemies must be vanquished 
completely," embodies the typical top-dog attitude, 
precluding all compromise, which, held by one revolu- 
tionary after another, tends to keep Mexico perennially 
convulsed. 

The temporary presidency of Sefior Carbajal proved 
short-lived ; and Carranza, gaining the presidential 
chair in his place, was in 1916 recognized by the Powers 
and by the United States. 

14* 



212 MEXICO 

In the north still roamed General Francisco Villa 
(" Pancho " Villa, as the Mexicans called him), a person- 
age differing as widely as possible from his now ruling 
rival Carranza. All manner of tales are told about him, 
and to sift the true from the false is difficult enough. 
He is said to be an*' American, who at one time served 
in a United States negro cavalry regiment. It is not 
even known for certain whether he was of American or 
Mexican birth. Another legend describes how, being 
left as guardian to his beautiful sister, he compelled a 
certain jcfe politico (head policeman) who had eloped 
with the girl, to marry her before the nearest priest, and 
then, after making the man dig his own grave, proceeded 
to shoot him out of hand. But beyond doubt " Pancho " 
Villa is a ruthless bandit ; quite illiterate, passionate, 
vindictive, and owning^ the blackest of records. A big 
man also, repulsive in appearance, crude of speech, with 
the crisp hair of a negro. As mentioned before, he 
showed marked ability as a cavalry leader of the 
INIaderists. He has been called, possibly with justice, 
" a magnificent brute." 

Villa was reared in the same sphere as Diaz. But 
Mlla remained a rough, uncouth, wild man all his life. 
He never tried to educate himself, he did not marry 
refinement and breadth of mind, coupled with sound 
ethics. He just stayed in the ruck of thought and 
actions he inherited from his fathers, with just sufficient 
of the ruler in him to acquire a following. A soldier of 
nature, a bandit of the hills, a fearless horseman and 
shot, he had a sort of wild devilment that attracts, and 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 218 



the half-breeds of the north foll^jbid his lead implicitly 
^ and admired his daring. But it takes more than daring 
to be a ruler, more than a bandit's devilries to inspire 
respect. And the worst of it is, when once a nation 
has got out of hand, and a man who wants a coat can 
get a coat by hitching it off somebody else's peg, he 
ceases to think it necessary to work for anything. He 
wants a horse, he takes one, and so on, until he loses all 
sense of proprietorship, andtI^^_omes nothing more than 
a common thief. One of the greatest troubles in the 
world is to teach respect for another person's belongings 
— to make people realize that they have no right to 
annex a lump of sugar or a pin, a saw or a needle that 
belongs to someone else, and that taking such a thing, 
as they say, " innocently " is really common theft. 
Common theft is rife in Mexico to-day. 



The folloAving remarks by a Mexican who knows his 
country from A to Z are interesting : 

" Villa is a kind of primitive man without any clear 
notion of civilization, much less of government. Even 
his alleged military genius, as shown in the battles 
against Huerta, was nothing else than the profound 
demoralization of the Federal Army, as recruited by 
Huerta in the pulque shops and in the prisons. Presi- 
dent Wilson is the only person responsible for the 
sudden transformation of a bandit into a statesman, or 



214 MEXICO 

of a statesman into a bandit, after the Columbus raid, 
which is, perhaps, the only thing worthy of a man 
which Villa has accomplished. 

" You may be shocked by the statement, but let me 
remind you that President Wilson had shown preference 
for Villa as against Carranza, when suddenly the latter 
was not only recognized by the United States Govern- 
ment, but made an ally of to fight Villa. President 
Wilson gave permission to Carranza to use the United 
States territory and its railways in order to send rein- 
forcements to the Carranza troops, who were fighting 
Villa, saving them in this unexpected manner from a 
sure disaster. This was an .act of war of the United 
States against Villa, who then had the right to accept 
the challenge, attacking a garrison of six hundred soldiers 
with only three hundred ragged Mexicans, according to 
official declarations from United States army officers. 

" In Carranza I do not find a single redeeming 
quality, either as a man or as a ruler. He is nothing but 
an exquisite fruit of President Wilson's watchful waiting. 
Washington looks now upon Carranza with the pride 
of a sculptor gazing at his last masterpiece. The 
American Press publishes daily statements from Mr. 
Lansing about Carranza' s loyalty and good faith, or 
reports from Mr. Fletcher, the United States Ambassa- 
dor to Mexico, whose principal duty seems now that of 
giving a good character to Carranza, although the first 
one to appreciate the joke is Carranza himself, and next 
in line the German Minister, Baron von Eckhardt. 

" Huerta possessed the best qualities but had also 



HUERTA—CARRANZA— VILLA 215 

the worst faults of his native race. He showed his 
loyalty to General Diaz, to the very last accompanying 
him to Vera Cruz, and if necessary would have pro- 
tected him with his own body in the attack upon the 
train. He could not forgive Madero for having been 
instrumental in the overthrow of Diaz, and being 
vicious, greedy and ambitious, he was easily induced to 
prove traitor to him." 

As to Mexican statesmen in general, the same 
authority is somewhat caustic. 

His impression is that these statesmen " are not made 
but born, educated and fully equipped for their task, 
in fact, that they spring from the earth like so many 
mushrooms ; but that their modesty prevents them 
from announcing their existence to the world until the 
occasion arises to demand recognition by force of arms. 
The fact that some of them have blossomed forth and 
borne fruit is a proof that they have had no school life, 
or they would have been spoiled, like myself. 

" The only family tie common to all is the budget, 
and their only known hobby is the desire to possess what 
does not belong to them. 

" Be sure that, even if you make a saint of every one 
of them, you will not come up to the mark of what their 
paid Press has said about them in praise of their exploits 
in the air, and on the surface of and under the water, 
just as you can never vie with their opponents in vitu- 
peration." 



CHAPTER XIII 

DEATH OF DIAZ — ^THE FUTURE OF MEXICO 

PORFIRIO DIAZ, eight times President of Mexico, 
died in exile and political neglect on July 2nd, 
1915, in Paris. He was in his eighty-fifth year. 
All through the fortnight of his final illness, during 
which he was insensible, Madame Diaz never left his 
room. Never had man, great or small, a more devoted, 
comprehending, or sympathetic helpmeet than this 
dainty, well-born, highly- educated woman, who was 
but a girl of fourteen when they married in the spring 
of 1883. 

Sympathy is the mainspring of happiness ; without 
it life would be like an unwound clock. It wouldn't 
work. 

" Of course Madame Diaz," wrote a Mexican friend 
from Biarritz a few days after the death, " is quite 
heartbroken. If you could have seen her watching at 
his side day and night your admiration for her would 
have been incomparable. She has stayed in Paris at 
their little fiat. Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, but I hope 
she will soon join us here with her sister, Madame Teresa, 
who has rented a villa." 

216 



DEATH OF DIAZ 217 

In answer to some lines, expressing sympathy with 
her great loss, Madame Diaz sent the writer a very sad 
but charming letter. She was stricken by grief at the 
terrible calamity that had overwhelmed her, but 
appreciative of a little invitation to come and pass a 
few quiet days in London. Unfortunately she was too 
much bowed down to accept, and had been ordered off 
to Ceaux for the mountain air. The place might do 
something towards restoring her health, but for her 
shattered heart there was no medicine whatever. 
Crushed as she was, her only consolation was in God, 
and yet, pious and devout woman as her friends 
knew her to be, she confessed to feeling at times 
" abandoned," seeing that she had lost all that made 
life dear to her. 

With a comment upon the terrible war and affectionate 
greetings from her step-son, the bereaved woman — 
whose happy wifehood, whose splendid influence upon 
the public as well as the home life of a great man had 
so long inspired delight and admiration — closed her letter. 

The fact that a woman is "brainy" does not make 
her less appreciative of being loved and looked after, 
however hard-working she may be. 

Mexican women, as a rule, are of little help to their 
men-folk. They are pretty and docile and stupid, and 
that type of woman, just as in every other land, is a 
failure. 

A really domesticated woman always fails matri- 
monially. Her husband tires of her, and her children 
rarely respect her. A little domesticity goes a long way ; 



218 MEXICO 



but eternal darning and cooking weary any man and 
make a mere household drudge of a woman 

When a man's wife ceases to be a companion he 
seeks companionship elsewhere. When a woman's 
husband ceases to talk intellectually and as a comrade 
she ceases to care for him. 

No business or profession of, say, eight or twelve 
hours' daily duration, is as exhausting as domesticity 
with its sequence of nerve-racking pin-pricks. What 
applies to the upper classes equally applies to the 
lower classes in every land. 

Madame Diaz and her daughter-in-law are wonderful 
women. They are both . brilliant women, kindly, 
endowed with good looks and charm ; they are not only 
domesticated, and really domesticated in the best sense 
of the word, but are linguists, and thoughtful and 
soulful. Mexican society in their days was raised by 
their presence. It has dropped back to dull stupidity, 
and in many cases to vulgarity, if all one hears be true. 

The moral code of the peon was never high, according 
to civilized ideas ; but all their habits and customs are 
treated in other books by the author. 

When a man wants a girl he can't give her enough. 

When a man has got a girl he can't give her too little. 

Alas — and alack ! Sarcastic, but true. 

The influence of the woman, even if she is only a girl, 
can be tremendous. Leaving the barrack room, the 
rough language of the soldier, the political chamber, the 
bull ring — the man's life, as it is so called — Diaz entered 
a new world of refinement, love and youth when he 



DEATH OF DIAZ 219 



married. If we are born in a refined home, we learn 
to hate vulgar things, we are not interested in vulgar 
people, culture and good taste are ever beside us. 
From such a home came Carmelita Rubio. 

Diaz had known the loneliness of soul and lack of 
sympathy that cuts into the vitals of every brain- 
worker, every leader, every ruler. This beautiful girl 
stepped in and all was changed. She brought a breath 
of refinement and love, and their tendrils wound their 
tiny shoots round the heart of the rough old warrior and 
gradually transformed him into a man of taste, refine- 
ment and courtly manners ; his rude strength, his 
great character, powerful will, knowledge of the country 
he was born to govern, changed the simple girl into the 
most brilliant woman in Mexico. She educated herself 
to keep pace with him, she read books on subjects he 
wanted to know about, and gave him the synopses. 
Their comradeship was the handmaiden of sympathy, the 
art of appreciation, the pleasant interchange of thought. 

War has revolutionized the position of women to-day. 
Men liked women to be incapable before the war — 
hence the number of senseless, fluffy dolls. Men 
expect women to be capable of everything since the 
war, hence the number of wonderful Avomen to be 
seen everywhere. 

The same women, merely changed. They have cast 
aside their helplessness that pleased men and evinced 
wondrous capability to help the war and the world. 
They have stepped into men's shoes, and the shoes 
don't pinch. 



220 MEXICO 



The Diaz' were both people of high ideals, and they 
worked hard for their country's good ; but while they 
advanced and the country advanced, the peon would 
not give up his wooden idols, his little gods and almost 
barbaric ways. He appeared to be improving on the 
surface ; but he was not married to a woman help- 
mate, and so he really lagged behind, how far behind no 
one knew until revolution, the outcome of centuries, 
was once more ready to take sway. 

There was probably never a more extraordinary 
evolution of character in the world's history than that 
of General Diaz. From among millions of uneducated 
peons, that man educated himself to a high level. His 
native love of the land, the hills, the virgin forests, the 
animal life, remained. The hunter-man was in him. 
The soldier-man was made ; but the man's essential 
self he himself made from the rough Mexican 
material. 

He basked as a boy in the sunshine that gladdens the 
heart. Hard work seems to agree with people, and he 
worked hard. Any custom that becomes a habit may 
become a curse. He threw oft custom. He lived to 
learn. Education to him was one long and constant 
inquiry, and knowledge but the assimilation of replies. 
He asked for information from those who knew, and he 
was ever ready to learn. 

We can never know too much, and most of us know 
too little. 

It requires brains to appreciate brains. It requires 
talent to understand talent. It requires knowledge and 



DEATH OF DIAZ 221 



experience to value the beautiful, and vast capacity to 
build, to organize, to make and to govern. 

Opportunity, like time, passes never to return. He 
never missed an opportunity. But withal no gains of 
power, no worldly success ever rivalled, in his view, the 
delights of home. Mankind is mighty fond of cursing 
ill-luck. Diaz was never tired of blessing good Fate. 

He was a silent man. The art of listening graciously 
is a gift ; but that is education and not conversation. 
Kitchener was built somewhat in the same mould as 
Diaz ; but Kitchener was born of well-to-do parents, 
who could afford to give him that great bedrock, a good, 
sound education. 

Don Porfirio has been spoken of as ruling Mexico 
for thirty-iive years. This is true ; but he was only 
in the presidential chair for thirty-one years. After 
his first term he vacated it according to the rules of 
the country for his friend, Gonzales (elected Sep- 
tember 25th, 1880), who, it was arranged, should hold 
office until he could return. During these four years 
Diaz held immense sway. Towards the end of the 
time he and his understudy quarrelled, for Diaz was 
a fearless man. 

Fear is a crime. Fear should be stifled from baby- 
hood, smothered in childhood and unknown in later 
life. Fear brings disaster of every kind. Even in 
a mild case like a dental operation. A fearful patient 
makes the dentist's labour doubly hard. It impedes 
him. It lengthens and spoils his work. It does the 
patient harm and the work is not as good or as lasting, 



222 MEXICO 

so the patient has to go back to the dentist later to 
get repaired what his foolishness brought about. 

Fear of an air raid is a crime. Our soldiers face 
air raids every day in the trenches, they have lived 
under air raids and far worse things — why should a 
man or woman murmur if they hear a bomb ? If 
they are to be killed on a certain day they will be 
killed, why court death by sapping their own vitality, 
and the vitality of those about them ? 

It is as silly as shrieking at a mouse or an earwig. 

Diaz knew no fear. 

And so one feels inclined to sum up by saying the 
most vital import of life is fearlessness, honesty and 
straightforwardness . 

This ghastly nightmare of war, which has hit half 
the homes of Europe, is the outcome of dishonesty of 
purpose and crookedness of dealing. 

From the highest to the lowest we one and all need 
to learn to be more honest, and more straightforward, 
not only to ourselves but the world as a whole. 



There is a very well-known church near the Arc de 
Triomphe; not a stone's throw from the Hotel Astoria, 
where the writer stayed with the Diaz family in 1913 
and 1914, and which, during the war, was turned into 
a Red Cross hospital. 

At that church General Diaz worshipped in his 
retirement. He, who during those thirty-five years' 



DEATH OF DIAZ 223 

reign in Mexico had not been allowed to enter a church 
except for a wedding, or a funeral or a christening, was 
much drawn to the Catholic Faith in the last five years 
of his life. Those were his years of exile. He, who 
had only twice left Mexican soil up to the age of nearly 
eighty-one, when he left Mexico for good, found con- 
solation in religion, as so many others have done. 

Madame Diaz had always been dSvoiUe and no doubt 
her influence had borne fruit. After his death she 
became almost a recluse, and her only consolation was 
in religion. She prayed daily for the hour when they 
might be reunited. 

Suffering teaches more than gold, just as money 
ruins more homes than poverty. 

It was on a cold, miserable June day, just after 
the Battle of Jutland, in 1916, with wounded French 
soldiers hobbling about in every direction, with scarce 
a taxi or a fiacre to be got, that the writer arrived 
at the church. 

Mass was just ending. People were streaming out 
— a solid throng of women in black (for all France had 
suffered), and soldiers, hale or maimed. 

" If you would go round to the left and knock at 
the door, you would find the vault in the crypt in 
which the General lay," said the attendant. 

Passing priests and surplices, and down some stone 
stairs, one reached the crypt, where the verger unlocked 
a massive door leading to a tiny private vault. He 
turned on an electric light. 

There, feet towards the door, the huge coffin 



224 MEXICO 

slanting downwards from the head, lay all that remamed 
of my dear old friend. A little lamp was burning. 
Large candlesticks stood sentinel round the coffin. 
The floor was thick with beautiful artificial lilac, iris 
and marguerites, and in front a huge jar was full of 
living peonies or something pink and deep crimson. 
In front of these fresh flowers was a Prie-Dieu. 

It was an imposing sight, simple and yet beautiful. 
Everything was so good and yet so quiet. 
The attendant crossed himself. 

" The maid of Madame Diaz " (who was then in 
Switzerland) " comes twice a week with fresh flowers, 
but when Madame is in Paris she comes herself twice 
every day to pray." 
" Twice ? " 

" Yes. She is here for two hours every morning, 
and two hours every afternoon, kneeling beside her 
husband." 
The piiayer of a good woman availeth much. 



One turned away from that simple tomb in that 
simple cellar-vault with a lump in one's throat. It 
all seemed so sad. This man, who spent well-nigh 
eighty years in his homeland, had died thousands of 
miles from the warm suns he loved, the bamboos and 
palms, the cacti and arums, the wild orchids and tube- 
roses ; the jabbering monkeys and solemn turtles ; 
the crocodiles and jaguars, the life of the tropics — in 
which he was born. Uprooted as an octogenarian, 



DEATH OF DIAZ 225 

he had lived in a strange land of greyer skies and 
whiter skins, in a land whose language he gradually 
learnt to understand and speak a little ; but although 
he grew to love France, more than half of him was 
always in Mexico. He sat for hours thinking of 
Mexico. He walked miles pondering on Mexico, he 
ate his food wishing it was tortillas and jriholes, peppers 
or mangoes, or tomales, and his absorbing wish was 
to see Mexico true to herself again, and to die in his 
own dear, cherished land. 

Often and often he wished he had quietly retired to 
his native State to live and die peacefully ; but his 
leaving the country was his great and final sacrifice. 
We people who have travelled have no conception what 
it meant to a man of eighty to leave his native soil 
and tread a land whose language, ways, thoughts, 
ideas and ideals were all strange. 

If Mexico has any respect for his memory they will 
bury him with all pomp and pride upon his native 
shore, and let the hero of Mexico rest among the 
Mexicans. 

It was his last wish. 

Meantime, all that is mortal of Diaz rests in Paris 
— the Paris he had learnt to love. 



On the death of Diaz it became apparent that the 
world had measured variously, according to its different 
lights, his undoubted greatness ; but on pretty well 

15 



226 MEXICO 



all hands it was admitted that, if he had governed 
under Republican forms with an iron hand, that hand 
of iron was the one instrument through which Mexico 
— a tangle of mixed races and languages, and a country- 
demoralized by sixty years of anarchy and chronic 
civil war — could be brought back to anything like 
order and prosperity. The need of a stern grip was 
realized by Diaz when he seized the supreme power in 
1876, and happily he had the administrative talent to 
wield the tool in such a fashion that Mexico ere long 
began to emerge from its nightmare of unrest and 
distraction. Through his later years, especially, the 
country waxed steadily stronger in finance and well- 
being. Life and property were more secure in Mexico 
than in some of the neighbouring districts over the 
American border. The payments of the foreign loans 
were made faithfully ; never once was there the default 
which we have noted under Huerta's Government 
(January, 1914). Railways, agriculture, the mining 
industry, all progressed and flourished under Diaz. 

What, then, were the salient faults of the great 
President's regime ? 

In view of one of his critics, the administration of 
Diaz " effected little or nothing for the political 
education of the mass of the people, and side by side 
with an impressive display of administrative well- 
being, there stalked the poverty and ignorance of the 
Middle Ages." 

Political education : the dialectical value of the 
phrase is surely proportioned to the quality of the 



DEATH OF DIAZ 227 

human material to be operated upon. You would 
hardly mention it in relation to a savage, and were the 
Mexican masses — wholly Indian or half-caste in stock, 
and lacking even the rudiments of knowledge — much 
better than savages ? Methinks the accusation smacks 
somewhat of pedantry. As to the ignorance of those 
masses, Diaz, at least, made a strong effort to reduce 
it ; in which connection, writing of the year 1904, 
in the Diaz Life, the author said : 

" Education is one of the great factors in Mexico 
to-day, and Diaz has done almost more in that direc- 
tion than in any other ; education is with him a perfect 
craze. The public schools in every State of Mexico are 
looked after by its Central Government, and there are 
normal schools well supported by Government funds 
where teachers are trained. As for the art schools, 
industrial schools and technical schools of all kinds, 
they are too numerous to mention. There are night 
schools in every town of importance in Mexico. 
General Diaz says : ' The State must teach scholarship, 
industry and patriotism ; religious teaching must be 
done at home.' " 

People who talk religion almost never practise it. 
The things we feel most deeply, like love and religion, 
are too sacred for constant words. 

Three things divide a household : religion, im- 
morality and food. Indulgence in the second, over- 
indulgence in the first or third, spells misery in the 
home. 

15* 



228 MEXICO 

It is true, as stated earlier in the present work, that 
Diaz was too strongly obsessed by his big plans for 
the country's future to give due attention to the land 
hunger and poverty of the humbler classes ; but it is 
only fair to insist once more on the fact that, if he 
allowed some of his friends to grow rich at the country's 
expense, he steadfastly refused to aggrandize himself. 
Other potent dictators the world has known, but not 
many with so Spartan a gift of self-abnegation. 

The sound ambition of a born ruler of men Diaz 
assuredly possessed ; of the purblind ambition that 
worships office as its god he was guiltless. 

So far as the strength and firmness of his adminis- 
tration went, its need was eventually — seeing how 
quickly national collapse followed upon Diaz' resigna- 
tion — admitted even by his American critics. 

Note the change in President Wilson. 

At Indianapolis, early in 1915, Wilson spoke as 
follows : 

" Until this recent revolution in Mexico, until the 
end of the Diaz regime, eighty per cent, of the people 
of Mexico never had a look in in determining who 
should be their governors or what their government 
should be. Now I am for the eighty per cent. It is 
none of my business, and it is none of yours, how they 
go about their business. The country is theirs. The 
Government is theirs. The liberty, if they can get 
it— and God speed them in getting it— -is theirs. And 
so far as my influence goes, while I am President, 
nobody shall interfere with them. Have not European 



DEATH OF DIAZ 229 

nations taken as long as they wanted and spilled as 
much blood as they pleased in settling their affairs, 
and shall we deny that to Mexico because she is weak ? 
No, I say." 

By June 2nd of the same year, Mr. Wilson, after 
stating that Mexico was apparently no nearer a solution 
of her tragical troubles than when the revolution was 
first kindled, went on to hint rather strongly that 
some active moral support might have to be given by 
his Government in the direction of such a solution. 



As to Mexico's future — what is to be done ? 

Already the writer has emphasized the size, the 
importance to the world, the immense potential wealth 
of Mexico. It hi^ been — this again has been dwelt 
upon — in a state of unrest and continual anarchy 
ever since the retirement of Diaz ; for the future, is 
such a valuable slice of the world to be left alone — or 
what ? 

The question, so easy to propound, so immensely 
difficult to solve, is naturally in many mouths. The 
man in the street puts it glibly, looking for some 
simple, all-embracing answer to a question bristling 
with complexities : the armchair philosopher replies 
to him readily enough, usually on lines beautiful in 
theory biit with little relation to the practicalities of 
the situation. 

There is no common basis for coalescence between 



230 MEXICO 

the Mexican and American nations, and annexation by 
the United States. The pair are, to repeat a former 
phrase, hke oil and vinegar. And faiHng coalescence, 
there would remain only the dominance of a sub- 
servient people by one more civilized, more energetic, 
progressive and educated. Mexico would be submerged. 

Every nation has the right to settle its own affairs, 
just as every person has the right to spend his money 
as he likes — if he has earned it. We, in our great 
British union of free democracies, know this. 

The moiijik soldier of Russia — only 25 per cent, 
of whose privates can read and write — is just as much 
of a child as the peon soldier of Mexico. Both are 
taught by word of mouth, and by picture writing upon 
the walls, both are lazy, dull, good, kindly people who 
only want to be let alone. 

Russia and Mexico are somewhat analogous as lands 
of immeasurable undeveloped self-riches, and barely 
ripe for self-government. 

Educated peoples, however, must help and father 
uneducated governments. 

All through Europe we are talking of nationality. 
It is accepted as the master-key to the problems 
of all the small countries. Each and all, should 
they possess nationality, are to be developed on 
national lines. Poland, long ruled in fragments by 
tliTee Great Powers, is to have once more its own 
individual nationhood. Finland is to be Finland, 
un-Russianized and un-Swedenized. The Southern 
Slavs of Hungary are to become part of a great Slav 



DEATH OF DIAZ 231 

nation. The Czechs of Bohemia are to sHp, we trust, 
the Austrian yoke. The Irish problem has stubbornly 
resisted solution hitherto simply because Ireland is not 
one nation, but two : could its Catholic and Celtic, 
its Protestant and Scoto-Saxon portions coalesce, 
the problem would be solved to-morrow. India, a 
congeries of religions and races — and before its occupa- 
tion by Britain in a state of perpetual internecine war, 
and of domination by successive conquerors and 
tyrants — could never have been unified save under the 
aegis of a great educated Ruling Power. 

Egypt — is there any parallelism between thai 
country and Mexico ? 

Little enough in sooth, save in the matter of potential 
agricultural wealth, which Britain is exploiting largely 
in the interest of the native race. 

Egypt has been ruled and ground down by the 
Mamelukes, conquered by France, ruled and ground 
down again by that supremely hard taskmaster, the 
Turk. For centuries it has known no freedom. 
Mexico freed herself by blood and tears from the 
Spanish yoke : her bell of Hidalgo has been ringing 
out the fact, her banner of green, white and red pro- 
claiming it since the establishment of her independence 
in 1821. Her rebirth under Diaz established and 
justified her position as a nation with a right to its 
own individual future. Another fifty years will see 
Mexico emerge from its present chaos into real wealth 
and stability. 

On no account must a foreign yoke, save in paternal 



232 MEXICO 



form, be permanently fastened upon the neck of Mexico. 
Having won freedom, free she must remain. 

There are many analogies between the family, the 
nation's nucleus and epitome, and the nation itself. 
Let us — in place of offering a cut-and-dried scheme for 
the fusing of flux and disorder into firmness and 
stability — consider whether any of these analogies 
may give ground for hope in the present instance. 

Mexico, a genuine family, is still a discordant one. 
Lacking not only an efficiently commanding rule and 
an educated populace, but the spirit of reasonable 
give-and-take among its hot-headed members — who 
still barter goods — it seethes with unrest and agitation. 
Such a family, at first glance, seems likely to bicker 
on to the Greek Kalends — and not seldom, alack, in 
ordinary life does so. But not always. 

There is a feature in domestic discord which many 
a student of human nature must have noted with 
interest ; to wit, that a mere psychological trifle will 
often make a disproportionate-seeming change in the 
embroiled atmosphere of a family. A, who has stuck 
like a limpet to some rock of privilege or opinion, 
yields just a hairbreadth. So insignificant is the 
yielding, the grudged fragment of magnanimity, that 
B and C disregard it for a space. Yet it has touched 
their subconsciousness ; it leads presently to some 
equally small abatement of their dogmatism. A faint 
sweetening of the atmosphere supervenes, a hint of 
light steals in. Yet the whole curative process is so 
gradual, so long-drawn-out that before the emergence 



DEATH OF DIAZ 238 



of any visible result the initial touches — the real 
operative cause of the final reintegration — are forgotten. 

Even so, though often enough years in this case 
must be substituted for weeks in that, may things 
work out when whole nations are embroiled. 

May we not hope also that even Mexico may some 
day find its storm-charged atmosphere quieting down 
into, say, reasonable trade-wind conditions ? 

And then ? Then will come the offer of the friendly 
arm, the crutch, the eager advances of neighbours and 
onlookers. 

That may prove the danger-time — unless over self- 
interest be sternly suppressed. 

No need to dogmatize about the form of intervention ; 
as to its spirit let history teach us. 

That spirit should be, above all things, non-Prussian. 

Consider the hide-bound Prussian spirit, as demon- 
strated in every quarter of the globe ; comprehend it 
in essence and in scope — and avoid it like the plague. 

Why does South Africa decline ore rotundo to resume 
neighbourship with the German ? Because of that 
spirit. Why will even the most sentimental pacifist, 
who dreads above all things Germany's humiliation, 
shrink from restoring to her Togoland or East Africa ? 
Because, knowing that spirit, he must needs think of 
the ground-down natives. 

In September, 1914, General Smuts, who fifteen years 
before was our deadly enemy, summed up the Prussian 
spirit thus : 

" Here we are to-day," he said, " as a free people able 



234 MEXICO 

to develop as we please and able to do as we want. And 
opposed to us is a military compulsion and autocracy, 
in the worst form, which is threatening to suppress and 
isolate the smaller nations." 

How right, too, General Smuts was when he spoke of 
our Kingly Democracy. Great Britain and the Domin- 
ions are the greatest democracy in the world. Her 
people are the freest, her sons the strongest. And they 
are all welded and held together from distant corners 
of the earth by one coping-stone — the King. There 
is a Head. There must be an hereditary Head for the 
British Commonwealth of Nations. We cannot, and 
we do not want to, make a Republic of this vast 
Commonwealth. We must have as chief a King, the 
accepted representative of all the free and allied 
nations that compose it, not a President removable 
every few years. There must be permanent executive 
chambers — a system stable and enduring, not change- 
able, down to its very doorkeepers, with a changing 
President, as in the case of a Republic which has no 
hereditary head. By no thinkable means could the 
difficulties of election, in a fashion to suit a whole 
congeries of peoples, be surmounted. 

We have no one-man government, but, to' use the 
General's own words : " What is not very different 
from an hereditary Republic." 

A president of four years spends his first year getting 
accustomed to office, and putting all his old friends into 
new jobs. 

The second year he begins to expand himself. 



DEATH OF DIAZ 235 

The third year he is already haunted by the coming 
election, and the fourth year in working hard for new 
votes. He becomes moribund as regards the future of 
his countrj^, and at fever point as regards his own 
re-election. 

Diaz was right. No large country can stand a 
political upheaval every four years. Six years is short 
enough for a man to learn to rule, and see any result 
from his administration. But far better and stabler 
surely than any republic, with its constantly changing 
figure-head, is our chain of ipso jacto republics, all 
working individually under one sovereign, one un- 
changing figure-head ; who gives dignity to the whole, 
and is the centre axle of the spokes, all of which are 
held together by an iron felly encased in a tyre of soft 
rubber, running smoothly along the roadway of nations. 

Great Britain is a great democracy of peoples with 
one common kingship. 

Britons have always been a law unto themselves. 
Built on the laws of the Romans — who founded London 
two thousand years ago — they have expanded and 
developed. They have made mistakes and paid the 
penalty, and Mexico will have to do the same. She has 
made mistakes. She is paying the penalty, but she is 
a glorious and a rich land, so she must triumph in the 
end, if only some strong man like Diaz, or Botha, will rise 
among her people and show her the way. Bismarck kept 
Germany together, under the commercial-traveller Kaiser 
it became Hohenzollernized and rushed to its military 
downfall. Co-ordination, co-operation, technical and 



236 MEXICO 

scientific education well-nigh made her the greatest 
industrial country of the world. But she was too 
ambitious for power — and she fell. Power is a great 
thing, but power must be properly administered, and 
the game of grab does not succeed. Each nation must 
govern itself, and Mexico must work out its own salva- 
tion. If the United States tries to annex she will fail. 
Once she has made her army she will be strong, and in 
her strength may advise and help her Spanish-Indian 
neighbour — but on no account whatever must she 
attempt to expunge Mexican nationality. 

Compulsion and autocracy — it is the same story in 
regard to German trade. 

The play of fair give-and-take, of honest, rationally 
conducted rivalry in the opening up of trade and 
commerce, that is a conception possessing no charm for 
the Prussian. If he annex a group of Pacific islands, 
he must needs rule and police it, as also exploit its trade 
for himself. German advantage, whether strategic or 
commercial, obsesses him completely, to the crushing 
down of every notion of fair play to other nations — 
and the elimination once for all of every native interest. 

Let the intervener in Mexico, when the right time 
comes, be no commercial traveller in spurs, no burglar 
with a jemmy in one hand and an oil-can in the other ; 
no sabre-rattling bully, but an understanding friend, 
conscious of an intervener's limitations, a physician 
mindful that he can help, but must never hurry the 
delicate healing processes of Madam Nature. 



DEATH OF DIAZ 237 



On April 16th, 1917, the first Mexican Congress since 
that which was forcibly dissolved by Huerta in 1913, 
was opened, Carranza having been proclaimed Presi- 
dent a few weeks before. The Congress was at least a 
promising symptom. At the same time there was 
running about the United States a suggestion in regard 
to a Pan-American Alliance of both the Americas for 
the protection of the stable democratic Governments^ 
originally created by the now obsolete Monroe Doctrine, 
favouring democratic forces in Europe. 

Here again, should the idea materialize, would be a 
condition of things favourable to Mexican settlement ; 
for the States and Latin-American countries would thus 
become a solid democratic bloc, working for democracy 
and the independence of nations — one that could not 
thinkably design the annexation of Mexico. Such a 
bloc should, by its very .bulk and weight, own power 
enough to attain its ends by calm pressure, eschewing 
the previous United States methods of alternate stand- 
aside and strike-in. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOW THE GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 

lEFORE touching upon the notorious Zimmer- 
mann plot it may be well to note, in connection 
with the German permeation of the United 
States and its possessions, what Germany was preparing 
to do in the way of rivalling the Panama Canal 
enterprise since its completion by the United States 
Government. 

In the year 1912 the German Minister to Bogota, 
Colombia, Baron Kracker von Swartzenfeldt, who had 
a very large staff of employees — some of them experts 
in particular branches of industry and science — made a 
tour through the country, where British surve^^s had 
been made many years before with a view to a canal from 
the Gulf of Darien to the Pacific Ocean. 

It was proposed to take advantage of the Atrato 
River, debouching into the Gulf of Darien some two 
hundred miles east of Colon on the Panama Canal, and 
to follow up and make it navigable for large ocean- 
going steamers to its source ; whence a canal was to be 
cut through the ridge of hills separating it from the 
source of the San Juan River, which river was to be 

238 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 239 



made navigable in like manner to a point in the coast 
where it runs into the Pacific Ocean, some hundred and 
fifty miles north of the port of Buenaventura. 

With the assistance of the Colombian Government the 
Baron, accompanied by the experts of his staff, was able 
to go overland from Bogota to the San Juan River, and 
thence ascend it in boats for a considerable distance, till 
they reached the shallows and rocky rapids on nearing 
the source. Here the party travelled on mule-back 
across the divide, which separates the San Juan from the 
Atrato River, and then continued their journey overland 
until they again reached a navigable part of the same 
river, where they betook themselves to the water again, 
and thus reached the Gulf of Darien. 

Naturally many stops were made to study the 
country and the rivers, with a view to the canalization 
of the former and the improvement of the latter. The 
Baron, it is said, on his return to Bogota gave it as his 
opinion that the length of the canal between the sources 
of the San Juan and Atrato Rivers, and the great 
depth necessary through the divide, would preclude the 
enterprise being either an engineering or a commercial 
success. 

It is worthy of note that near the mouth of the 
Atrato River there is a most flourishing German colony, 
with its own railway, chiefly given over to the cultiva- 
tion of bananas and cocoa. Here there would probably 
have been a big German city had the canal project been 
carried through. 

A study has also been made of a variation of the 



240 MEXICO 



before-mentioned project. It consists in following up the 
Atrato River to a point where it can be made navigable 
for large steamers at a reasonable expense, and then 
turning off to the west, almost at a right angle, and 
making straight for the Pacific coast by means of a canal. 

Many engineers consider that the project would have 
been perfectly feasible, less costly in construction and 
less costly in future operation than the present Panama 
Canal. 

The Baron is not reported to have given any opinion 
on it, however ! 

German hopes of building a new canal whilst Japan, 
according to German wishes, was destroying the present 
one, do not seem likely to be realized. 

Another German plot for embroiling Mexico and Japan 
with the United States, though doubtless it had been 
long in process of incubation, did not hatch out until 
early in February, 1917. The emergence of that ugly, 
malformed chick from the shell naturally made a stir 
in the world ; but in the great camp of the Allies it 
was greeted rather with caustic derision than with 
astonishment. Naturally if Mexico fought against the 
United States, and the latter fought against Japan, 
these three vast peoples would be too occupied to take a 
hand against Prussianism in Europe. How could 
Great Britain, in particular, be seriously taken aback 
by a development so exactly in the key of Germany's 
previous machinations ? With us the Kaiser's Govern- 
ment had been playing precisely the same plot-game ever 
since the opening of a long-prepared war — and before 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 241 

it. Outside Turkey and the Balkans they had no 
successes, unless we count in the abortive Senussi rising 
on the Egyptian border, which certainly occupied the 
attention of a small mixed force, with a squadron of 
armoured cars, in 1916. Their attentions to the Amir 
of Afghanistan procured for them nothing but a snub. 
No serious Indian rising rewarded their sustained propa- 
gandism, in spite of their sending seditious pamphlets 
broadcast in seventeen different Indian languages. 
The perturbations among the Mohmands and Mahsuds 
of the north-west frontier, if they gave some trouble, 
failed to shake the stolidity of John Bull ; and these 
good people laid down their arms in July, 1917. The 
Arabs of Mesopotamia, out for plunder at first, but 
firmly resolved to back the winner the moment he should 
emerge as such, joined in the harrying of the German- 
Turks after their loss of Bagdad (March 11th, 1917). 
The great Dominions, who were to have surveyed from 
afar the breaking of John, struck in with their hundreds 
of thousands at his side. 

As to another most confident hope of the Germans, 
South Africa, the Boers, instead of rising against British 
" tyranny," elected to turn their weapons against the 
gentle Boche — with what results we know. 

Truly, the attempt to suborn Mexico against the 
States — especially at a time when Bethmann-Hollweg 
was so earnestly protesting his friendship for the latter — 
was very much " in the picture." The scheme for 
tacking on our faithful ally Japan gave a characteristic 
finish to the affair. 

i6 



242 MEXICO 

What was the situation as between Mexico and 
the States ? President Wilson, aiming at the capture 
of the arch-bandit Villa, had, on March 16th, 1916, sent 
his troops, numbering nearly fifty thousand, to march 
300 or 400 miles into Mexico because public opinion 
in the United States insisted upon it. The Americans 
themselves decided through their press that, owing to 
their want of action, their country was discredited ; but 
before the troops had been gone a month Uncle Sam 
would have given anything to withdraw them. As this 
could not be done at once, the soldiers were kept there 
by the American Government and public opinion. Wilson 
never wanted the war, and at the first opportunity 
(January, 1917) withdrew the troops; but American 
prestige suffered deeply in the eyes of Mexico. 

Out of the 100,000,000 of the inhabitants of the 
United States, 99,999,999 probably never understood 
the policy of their President in regard to Mexico. 

A word should be said, however, as to the inmiense 
difficulties encountered by the American troops. Not 
only were they attacked by sickness in the hot, dusty, 
arid northern plains, but harassed by the constant 
cutting off of their suj)plies by the clever tactics of 
Villa. The Mexican General, striking shrewdly at their 
railway communication, contrived again and again to 
break up sections of the line ; and no sooner was one 
part restored than his men made cunning night raids 
from the hills and played havoc with another. 

Never once did they catch sight of Villa, never had 
they the smallest chance of effecting his capture 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 248 

Eventually General Pershing and his troops had to 
retire from Mexico — in January, 1917, after an occupa- 
tion of ten months — because Carranza, the self-imposed 
dictator, announced to Washington that he regarded 
the sitting down of a United States army in his northern 
territory as an " unfriendly act." 

How quickly the world wags ! But four months 
later, and behold, General Pershing, the handicapped 
head of this abortive guerrilla warfare, was landing at 
Liverpool (May 8th, 1917) as the Commander-in-Chief 
of the coming American Army. He and his Staff were 
acclaimed by Britain as the " Standard Bearers." A 
little later France also was hailing the General as the 
leader of a promised million of men. 

Carranza, meanwhile, having got the better of the 
American diplomatists, occupied himself with the in- 
auguration of what he called a " Constitution," that is, 
a large-hearted scheme for the expropriation of proper- 
ties and for other machinations of the blackmailing 
order. Whatever might come of the now rapidly- 
developing state of quasi-war between the States and 
Germany, it was clear that seething Mexico — needing a 
close eye and possible suppression at any given 
moment — must be a thorn in the American flank. 
Wilson had refused to allow Huerta to carry out his 
attempt to settle the country — it remained to be seen 
whether Carranza, or anyone else, could achieve the 
much needed re-establishment. 

On March 1st, 1917, the Associated Press informed 
the world at large that the United States Government 

i6* 



2U MEXICO 



was in possession of a highly interesting document ; 
to wit the authentic letter of Herr Zimmermann, the 
Foreign Minister, to von Eckhardt, the German repre- 
sentative in Mexico. The letter, transmitted by the 
notorious Count Bernstorff, was as follows : 

" Berlin, January 19th, 1917. — On February 1st we 
intend to begin submarine warfare without restriction. 
In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavour to keep 
the United States neutral. If this attempt is not 
successful, we propose an alliance on the following 
basis with Mexico : 

" That we shall make war together and together 
make peace ; we shall give general financial support, 
and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer her 
lost territory of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The 
details are left to you for settlement. 

" You are instructed to inform the President of 
Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon 
as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war 
with the United States, and suggest that the President 
of Mexico shall, on his own initiative, communicate 
with Japan, suggesting the latter's adherence at once 
to this plan, and at the same time offer to mediate 
between Germany and Japan. 

" Please call to the attention of the President of 
Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine 
warfare now promises to compel England to make 
peace in a few months. 

Zimmermann." 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 245 



This document had actually been in President 
Wilson's hands during the above-mentioned pro- 
testations of friendship by the German Chancellor, 
a friendship that he emphasized as a " heritage from 
Frederick the Great." Even so had the Kaiser been 
giving the most amicable assurances to Belgium up 
to the very hour of his violation of that country. The 
note cleared up a deal of mystery, shed a light upon 
the long-standing, inexplicable-seeming wooing of 
Mexico by the Kaiser. 

" It adds another chapter," said New York, " to the 
celebrated report of M. Jules Cambon, the French 
Ambassador in Berlin, before the war, on Germany's 
world-wide plans for stirring up strife on every con- 
tinent where it might aid her in the struggle for world 
domination, which she dreamed was close at hand. 
It adds a climax to the operations of Count Bernstorff 
and the German Embassy in this country, which have 
been coloured with passport frauds, dynamite plots, 
and intrigue, which in their full extent have never been 
published. It gives new ground of credence for the 
persistent reports that submarine bases were estab- 
lished in Mexican territory and the Gulf of Mexico, 
and takes cognizance of the fact, long recognized by 
the American Army chiefs, that if Japan ever under- 
took to invade the United States it would probably 
be through Mexico over the border and into the 
Mississippi valley, to split the country in two. It 
recalls the fact that Count Bernstorff, when he was 
handed his passports, was very reluctant to return 



246 MEXICO 



to Germany, but expressed a preference for an asylum 
in Cuba. It gives a new explanation of the repeated 
arrests on the border of men charged by the American 
military authorities with being German intelligence 
agents. 

" Last of all, it seems to show a connexion with 
President Carranza's recent proposal to neutrals that 
the exports of food and munitions to the Entente 
Allies should be cut off, and his intimation that he 
might stop the supply of oil from the Tampico fields. 

" No doubt exists here now that the persistent 
reports of the last two years of operations of German 
agents, not alone in Mexico, but all through Central 
America and the West Indies, have been based on fact, 
and there is no doubt whatever that the proposed 
alliance with Mexico was known to high Mexican 
officials who were distinguished for anti- Americanism, 
among these being Rafael Zubaran, Carranza's Minister 
to Germany, and Luis Cabrera, his Minister of Finance." 

In regard to Carranza's proposal for total prohibition 
of all kinds of export to the Entente countries, the 
United States Government sent formal notification 
(March 16th) that it refused to participate in the scheme, 
pointing out that such a move had no justification in 
international law. 

This proposal, theoretically a plan for restoring 
peace to the world, but really a Teutonic move aiming 
at the embarrassment of the United States, was thus 
promptly put out of court. It had evidently been 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 247 



planned on the return of Seiior Zubaran from Berlin. 
Senor Cabrera had already given some intimation of 
it to the American Commissioners in Atlantic City, 
only to have his idea curtly dismissed. 

Yet, seemingly through some change of view on the 
part of his Government, Cabrera stated (February 25th) 
there had been no intention whatever of cutting off the 
supplies of oil. Oil may sound of little import ; but 
Mexican oil was at that time vital to our Navy. The 
American newspapers had, he insisted, misunderstood 
the matter. More than probably this change of front 
was due to Japan, which by this time had received and 
scornfully rejected the Prussian notion of turning traitor 
to its allies. 

As to the suspicion that the German sea-raiders in 
the South Atlantic had been utilizing secret bases on 
the Mexican coast, Carranza's Foreign OfBce received 
a strong admonition from the British Government in 
November, 1916 ; but sent a merely insolent reply. 
No doubt the proofs of this and many other examples 
of Germany's pernicious influence over Mexico, well 
known in many quarters, will emerge in due course ; 
and certainly the full disclosure effected by the capture 
of Zimmermann's document made a strong mark upon 
hesitating American opinion. This revelation, following 
upon the heels of the Laconia's destruction with the loss 
of twelve lives (February 25th, 1917), and superadding 
itself to the steady sequence of submarine atrocities, 
went far towards unifying America in a common senti- 
ment of outraged pride and intolerable humiliation. 



248 MEXICO 

Only a few months later the States sent their first 
small convoy of troops to France ; when, strange to say, 
they were attacked by German submarines west of the 
point fixed for the meeting of the destroyers with the 
American transports. Those movements must have 
been reported through Mexican wireless stations as 
all communications between the States and Germany 
had ceased on their mutual declaration of war. 

This wireless proved to be an immensely powerful 
station at Chapultepec — a station that was under 
Government control. American officials realized imme- 
diately that, with Berlin and Mexico in communication, 
all manner of useful information might be furnished 
to submarines and cruisers by the German agents in 
the States. 

On March 12th, 1917, the dismissed Count Bernstorff, 
leaving Copenhagen for Berlin with his full comple- 
ment of two hundred Embassy officials, spies and 
so forth, made some interesting admissions to the 
Hamburger Fremdenhlatt. He stated, among" other 
things, that the notorious Zimmermann note did — as 
generally believed — pass through his hands. 

It may be noted that Zimmermann, in giving his 
explanation (as below) to the Main Committee of the 
Reichstag, did not touch upon that which gives the 
transaction its specially treacherous character — the 
German Chancellor's continued assurances, even after 
the note had been sent, of the friendliness of the 
German-American relations. 

" We were," said Herr l^imnaermann, " in the evejit 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 249 

of there being a prospect of war with the United States, 
looking out for alHes. It was a natural and justified 
precaution. 

" For the dispatch of these instructions a secure way 
was chosen, which at present is at Germany's d sposal. 

" How the Americans came into possession of the 
text, which went to Washington in a special secret 
code, we do not know. That the instructions should 
have fallen into American hands is a misfortune, but 
that does not alter the fact that the step Avas necessary to 
our patriotic interests. Least of all in the United States 
are they justified in being excited about our action. 

" It would be erroneous to suppose that the step has 
made a particularly deep impression abroad. It is 
regarded as what it is, as a justifiable defensive action 
in the event of war." 

One feature of the German plot, it is presumed, 
was the destruction of the great Tampico oil wells, the 
potential output of which is immense, and from which 
Lord Cowdray's Mexican Eagle Company draws largely 
for the British Navy. One third of the oil output 
belongs to Great Britain, the remaining two-thirds to 
America. 

The writer feels a sort of personal interest in this 
matter, having been in Southern Mexico, Vera Cruz and 
Minatitlan in 1900 with Lord Cowdray, members of the 
Government, engineers and other officials, when the 
first Mexican oil was collected. Oil is a curious thing. 
It is found in the most extraordinary places, in desert 
wastes and sand, in places where there are coal deposits ; 



250 MEXICO 



and this particularly applies to England, for it has 
lately been found that, far below the depth of the coal 
pits of our country, there are oil deposits. 

Little did one imagine at the dawn of the twentieth 
century that fifteen years afterwards this Mexican 
oil would be playing such a large part in the European 
war by helping to fuel our naval ships. The export of 
oil from Mexico in 1900 was absolutely nil, it was merely 
collected in pailfuls for use by the native Indians, for 
light and medicinally. 

The neighbourhood of Tampico is the stratum of 
the largest of the oil-fields, and also the most easily 
accessible to the United States ; but a hundred miles 
further south is the place called Tuxpam, from which 
comes most of the Eagle or British oil. Those oil 
wells are themselves thirty miles inland ; but the 
liquid is conveyed by pipes not only to the land, but 
under the sea. The story is almost like a fairy tale. 
Tuxpam is a bad harbourage. There are only about 
thirty feet of water, and when one of those awful 
Mexican storms called a Norther is blowing at sixty 
and seventy miles an hour, nothing is safe upon the 
water. Sir Weetman Pearson evolved the idea of 
making a pipe line over a mile in length run right out 
under the sea, so that ships might load in the open. 
People laughed at the scheme and called its originator 
mad ; but he carried it out, and so successful has his 
pipe proved that many others have copied the idea. 

Sir Weetman, now Lord Cowdray, and for some time 
past head of the Air Board, has, aided by Mr. John 



HOW GERMAN PLOT WAS WORKED 251 

Body, done highly important work for Mexico, includ- 
ing the drainage by a canal forty-eight kilometres in 
length of the valley from Mexico City, and the great 
port-works which have converted Vera Cruz into a safe 
and convenient harbour. 

The Germans first showed an active interest in the 
oil of Mexico in the winter of 1916-17, when they pro- 
bably realized they were likely to have a rupture with 
the United States. It was then obviously to their 
advantage to encourage the popular rumour that 
England was entirely dependent on Mexican oil, which 
it was not, seeing that much of our oil for the Navy 
comes from the United States, the Mexican oil being 
too heavily charged with sulphur for some naval 
purposes. The German idea was doubtless to get up 
sufficient agitation in Mexico to destroy the oil-fields, 
and to do this they worked up a deal of labour trouble. 
The labour unrest at one time became acute, and so 
cleverly were they manipulated that everyone suffered 
except the Germans themselves. Their land and 
property escaped untouched — rather a proof in itself 
as to the real authors of the trouble. 

Finally Carranza forbade any exports from Mexico. 

To give an idea of the Mexican oil-fields one has 
only to say that that land supplies as much oil as the 
whole of Roumania and Galicia together, or over one- 
third of the entire Russian oil-fields, and the Mexican 
Eagle Company has a fleet of ten oil steamers of 16,000 
tons, and ten of 9,000 tons, constantly plying between 
England and Mexico, 



252 MEXICO 



Mexico produces forty million barrels of oil a year. 
It could double and treble that output. 

Oil was first worked commercially in 1904. 

For the honour of England we must uphold our oil- 
fields in Mexico. The Eagle Oil is one-third of the 
output of that country. As the other two-thirds are 
American (partly Standard Oil), America must, like 
ourselves, protect her own people in Mexico, and also 
look to the future of her own country, as they are 
running short of oil in the U.S.A. In fact, so short 
was America's production in 1916 that she had to 
draw sixty million barrels from her reserves. 

The American Standard Oil Company is a great 
concern ; but it certainly did not finance the Mexican 
rebellion, as report had suggested. Neither did German 
official money finance the Mexican Government ; but 
the Germans did assist it by large individual loans and 
self-ingratiation. When the States abandoned Huerta, 
the Germans assuredly did finance him, and no doubt 
aimed at making a strong puppet of him, as he was 
thoroughly disgusted at the lack of American support, 
which we British unfortunately were not strong enough, 
or too polite, to insist upon, although we had once 
refused Germany's offer to join with her in annexing 
Mexico. Germany would have made the discarded 
Huerta her henchman, but for his sudden death. 

While considering finance, let it be remembered that 
the foreign capital in Mexico to-day is about equally 
divided between Great Britain and the United States, 



CHAPTER XV 

A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 

THE Germans in the pre-war period had never had 
much money at stake in Mexico. Their 
influence, however, first began to be strongly- 
felt about 1902. For instance, a scene which took place 
at the famous Jockey Club entrance. Sundry South 
American diplomats, Brazilians, Chileans, Colombians, 
Peruvians, etc., were gathered together. General Mena, 
Minister of War, and some other Mexicans were dis- 
cussing which was the foremost country at that time. 

The conclusion unanimously arrived at was — 
Germany. 

Now one asks what was the cause of German com- 
mercial success ? 

Their usual form of procedure in Mexico was to ad- 
vance money on crops, and on notes of hand, for which 
they would receive payment in kind, establishing current 
accounts with their clients. In this fashion a large 
trade in hides from the beasts on the haciendas was 
quickly built up, and shipped to Hamburg. 

The Germans mostly left the mining industry in 
Mexico alone, and did not participate in railroad develop- 

253 



254 MEXICO 



ment. They were strongest on the Pacific coast, 
especially at Manzanillo, San Bias and Mazatlan, where 
their influence grew year by year. 

They deliberately set out to clear the competitive 
market of one special article at a time, taking time, and 
exhibiting great patience to that end. It was not 
alone in Mexico they did this. Consider, for instance, 
Ecuador during the last few years. The Germans set 
their hand to do away with English-made padlocks, 
which were very popular in that country. Padlocks 
seem a small thing ; but anything imported as a mono- 
poly is really a big thing. The fame of British padlocks 
was everywhere in Ecuador. In came the Germans. 
They offered and sold a better article at a price which 
made competition impossible. They probably made 
those padlocks at a grave loss at first ; but they cap- 
tured the trade, and then insidiously raised the price 
year by year. 

Germans intermarry with the people. When promi- 
nent South Americans go to Europe they are made much 
of in Germany, feted and feasted in every way, and 
indeed an organization seems to exist for the purpose. 
Whereas even important Mexicans or South Americans 
have too often been snubbed, or laughed at, in England 
or France, as rich, vulgar and valueless. 

Owing to the effectiveness of our blockade very few 
Germans got back to their own country after the 
declaration of war in August, 1914, so that now (Autumn, 
1917) everywhere from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, 
their local organizations are unimpaired. Many 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 255 

German firms have even made money out of the war, 
and some are in a stronger position to-day than they 
were before their country phuiged us into this awful 
pHght. Those Germans have not wasted time in South 
America, and will be a greater danger than ever after 
the war, with their wonderful system of propaganda 
and their commerce-snatching capabilities ; and 
especially with their new Bill for the Restoration of the 
German Mercantile Marine, the result of which will be 
practically the nationalization of German shipping. 

Germans are in Mexico and South America to-day. 
They are organized. They are systematized, and ready 
for the trade expansion Germany is looking to after the 
war. 

It seems so obvious why at the present time, in 
Spanish countries, from Spain to Chile, German propa- 
ganda has been so successful. From the sums Germany 
is spending, and the way in which this propaganda is 
organized, it is evident that great results are expected 
from it by the Hun, who knows that vast business 
expansion must be his project after the war, when, 
having ceased to be the military nation, he will aim at 
being the exporting one. If he had not been so short- 
sighted as to court war, he might have been the greatest 
manufacturing country in the world in a few years' 
time. He worked hard to gain that position, and his 
work was gaining success ; but unhappily for him the 
Kaiser's Militarism ruined the German business man. 
Mexico may love Germany, but Mexico does not love 
France. She has not forgotten the French occupation 



256 MEXICO 

or the imposition of Maximilian, and the part Austria 
played is regarded as secondary. Any defeat inflicted 
on France by Germany is no doubt popular with a large 
section of Mexicans, and especially among those like 
Carranza, who have the upper hand to-day. As for 
England, Mexico owes us money, and does not want to 
pay. They owe Germany nothing. 

" Do not pay the English," Germans tell them, and 
tell the Equadoreans also, " When we have beaten the 
English you need not pay them." 

The slow but sure development of German power in 
Mexico gradually became a menace to the United 
States. If Germany could only raise a rebellion in 
Mexico against North America as she did in Ireland 
against England, why, Prussia would score heavily. 
The Kaiser was wise enough to measure the immense 
length of sea coast line on both the Atlantic and Pacific 
sides, and note harbours for his warships and hiding- 
holes for his sea moles (U boats). He knew that nothing 
less than a hundred thousand American troops would 
be of the slightest avail, and five, or even ten, times that 
number would be required to subdue Mexico. He knew 
the United States hadn't got even 50,000 regulars, nor 
guns, nor munitions. It looked, in fact, an easy job 
to finance Mexico and win, and then claim Mexico as a 
colony with South America to follow. 

Only it didn't quite come off. 

Readers may wonder why one should venture to 
point out the omissions of the States in connection with 
Mexico, with Ireland knocking at our own door. Our 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 257 

disastrous muddles in Ireland are the matter of a 
century, and would fill many volumes, whereas the 
trouble between Mexico and the United States is a 
matter of less years, and therefore more easily soluble. 
How was it that the Kaiser, with all his brains, his 
far sight and wisdom, did not see the world had lived 
beyond the days of barbarism and butchery ? 

How was it that a man with his insight towards 
commercial domination, who year by year built up great 
trade for his country with the entire world, whose 
manufacturing expansions and markets astounded 
mankind by their rapid development ; how was it, 
that this man was so utterly stupid as not to be content 
with the wealth and industry he has brought to Ger- 
many, that he should try and thrust his Prussianized 
Hohenzollernism down the throats of the world ? 

He had neared the winning-post, and by a colossal 
blunder belaboured his commercial horse with such a 
cruelly wicked military stick, that his winner stumbled 
and fell, to be trodden under foot by one nation after 
another, each coming in against its wish, and yet each 
inspired to do so in the cause of freedom and democracy. 
To join hands round a peace table that will stamp out 
the degrading, demoralizing undoing of nations that 
the Kaiser's war thrust upon the world — a war secretly 
planned for thirty or forty years, and openly plotted at 
a secret session, a month before the world knew the 
blast furnace of wrath that was to be opened upon them 
on August 4th, 1914. 

The German intrigues by Christmas, 1916, became 

17 



258 MEXICO 

acute. Germans dropped down from North America 
and tried to ingratiate themselves with the Mexican 
Government by offering money and promising to put 
the terribly muddling ciu'rency on a proper basis. 
Where they meant to get the money from themselves 
to do these things remains a mystery. It was a trump 
card of diplomacy — an intrigue, perhaps, without the 
trump. 

At this time it must be remembered the Mexican dollar, 
usually valued at twenty-four pence halfpenny, had 
gone do^vn to the value of twopence halfpenny. Print- 
ing presses had been at work all over the country, making 
new paper money for themselves in each district. These 
dollar bills were more like tram tickets than money, 
and were forged by the million. Each fraction of Mexico 
had issued its own currency. Of course France had done 
something of the same kind in the exigency of war. She 
naturally called up all her gold and had to issue paper. 
One of these little notes represents fourpence halfpenny ; 
each canton and almost every town issued its own 
money. In fact, one could not change the notes out- 
side their own province, although they were of quite 
good value where they were issued. In France this 
paper was a matter of utility, while France held the gold 
in reserve ; but in Mexico the paper was rubbish in 
most cases and represented nothing. 

That Christmas (the third Christmas of the European 
war) it was rumoured that the Germans had bought up 
all the Mexican paper at four per cent, of its face value, 
and it was suggested that the Deutsche Bank and Spyers 



Nationale Bank van Belgie | 

fRekening'tti <;ourant; 

EEN itRANK 

"^ Eetaalbair op zicht C' 

I Y 

De ntraaktr wordl daor <l« U^ i rr.^t iJwani;arb«:J settrnf'. ■»■ 

j^; ■ if 



Cc* 

CeDpttf« 



•>'^ "T'H^y^ T^'r."^;.H^-v.' '*gain' 




CHAMBRE Lf. COMMERCE 



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War. 



[To /«c« />. 258. 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 259 

of New York were instrumental in the deal, and hoped 
thereby to outwit Great Britain and the States. 

By a drastic stroke the Government (Carranza), 
seeing they had gone too far and the country was 
bankrupt, insisted on going back to the silver (or gold) 
currency and decreed that all taxes must be paid in its 
own coin or United States currency, on the basis of 
the Mexican peso being at par value. 

The Easter, 1917, edict was to pay not only taxes but 
wages on this gold basis. This meant that the American 
and British interests had to import gold to pay their 
way and that the paper they had on hand was value- 
less. It was literally a tax and a heavy tax on them to 
bring gold into Mexico. Buying gold in New York was 
a serious expense, and the Germans who suggested the 
move dealt a blow to the only people who kept the 
industries of Mexico going at all. The oil companies 
were rich and well-managed concerns and they did it. 
Silver rose enormously in value. The Mexican people 
revolted against the paper, just as they are now 
revolting against muddle, and by the autumn of 1917 
gold was re-established and shares were on the upward 
grade. 

But as to the oil supply of the Allies, on April 12th, 
1917, six days after the formal completion of America's 
Declaration of War, that country had clearly put its 
foot down, for Washington announced that General 
Carranza had given positive assurances as to the supplies 
at Tampico and the other Mexican oil-fields being avail- 
able for the United States and Great Britain. Next 

17* 



260 MEXICO 



day the Mexican Minister of Commerce made an official 
pronouncement to the same effect. 

But to go back a moment, on the last day of January, 
1917, the good Carranza sent a gushing telegram to 
the noble William of Prussia, congratulating him on 
his birthday and expressing kindly, brotherly wishes. 
It was the last strong link between Mexico and Ger- 
many. It suggested much fraternization ; but it 
didn't come off. Germany was unable to support 
Carranza further against the States, and the States were 
buckling on their armour for war. 

People often talk big to pose on other people, and 
incidentally im-pose on thems"elves. 

One of Germany's minor machinations was brought to 
light in the following way. 

About this time a Hindu physician. Dr. Chakiaberty, 
and a German doctor named Sckunner were arrested 
in New York on a charge of suspicion of conspiracy 
to initiate a military expedition against a foreign 
country from the United States. This cheerful little 
plot involved, by the prisoners' confession, an attempt 
to invade India by way of China — a p««tty large propo- 
sition, even for the war-inebriated Von Igel, of the 
German Consular Service, who was directing the affair. 

The two prisoners, who had been under suspicion for 
a considerable time, were stated to have received a 
modest honorarium in the shape of £12,000. The Hindu 
doctor, by calling himself a Persian merchant, obtained 
a passport to Berlin, where doubtless he received useful 
instructions. Von Igel furthered the campaign with 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 261 

German thoroughness by propagandist literature in 
several Indian languages. The plotters were arrested 
in a house containing a large supply of such literature 
and a well-furnished chemical laboratory. 

Here is another significant trifle. In April, 1917, we 
learned of a discovery by the Federal authorities at 
El Paso, Texas, to the effect that the Germans had sent 
£400,000, chiefly through the El Paso banks, to the 
Mexican troops. 

As for our own country, we have naturally been pelted 
all through the war with tales of German plottings and 
spyings. Not a Zeppelin raid or coastal attack by 
runaway cruisers but has been supplemented by legends 
of signal lights or treacheries in some shape or other. 
No doubt many mare's-nests have been discovered ; 
and until the real facts of Germany's unresting secret 
activity are brought home to a man he is apt to let the 
mare's-nest formula cover every tale that reaches his 
ears. To relate a little incident : 

On Sunday morning, February 18th, 1917, a voice 
rang up on the telephone. 

" I have an introduction to you," said the unknown 
American voice and rather plaintively, " from Dr. 
Z. Y. X. I landed in London only two days ago and feel 
very lonely in this strange city. May I come and see you ? " 

Naturally one replied cordially : 

" Am always pleased to see an American, for they 
have always been so good to me. Come to-day between 
three and three-thirty o'clock." 

The owner of the voice, appearing soon after three, 



262 MEXICO 

disclosed himself as a very tall, thin, rather uiee-looking 
man. Avitli specially good teeth. The impression he gave 
was that of a rough-going American from '' out West." 

" Are you Americans coming into the war ? " was my 
first question, blandly toned. 

" Good God ! " he cried, " I hope not.'' 

*' Should your country take the plunge," I pursued* 
" you will have to go and fight for it, will you not ? " 

" Not if I can help it ! " he asseverated with fervour. 

This was shock Number One. For what sort of an 
American citizen was this, who, claiming one's sympathy 
and attention, repudiated with horror the idea of fighting 
for the Stars and Stripes ? 

Tiu-ning from the painful topic he fell to talking of 
Mexico, pronouncing my first book on that country to 
be the best yet written and cmmciating other soothing 
flatteries. He also mentioned that his father was a 
lawyer practising in Mexico. 

His hostess responded by alluding to a friend of hers, 
noM deceased, a lawyer of distinction, also practising in 
that country, by name Martinez del Rio. 

Strange to say, he didn't seem even to know the great 
Martinez del Rio's name. 

Shock Number Two. 

AVith a view to straightening out this personal-friend 
nmddle, the writer suggested that jNIexico ought to 
manage her own affairs, but that if she couldn't America 
must step in and do the business for her. 

'* JVoodhcad Wilson will never do that." he retorted 
instantlv. 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 268 



But evidently the subject of Mexico was also dis- 
pleasing, for he turned its flank by saying : 

" I used to think India ought to free itself from 
Britain's yoke, and did all I could to help it. But that 
is a long story, and done with now." 

He wished, then, to make another seething Mexico 
of India ? 

Here was shock Number Three. 

" Do you belong," I questioned, " to those Indian 
sedition-mongers, the Karachi lot ? " 

" Oh no, I come from California, but I'm interested 
in India." 

" But why don't you want the States to take its share 
in the movement for destroying Kaiserdom and military 
autocracy ? " 

" You had the States with you," he rejoined, " until 
you accepted the Japanese alliance. We can't stand 
yellow people, and that step turned all the western 
states against you." 

" Where have you arrived from now ? " I asked at 
last. " Did you come from Australia ? " 

No, he had never been to Australia. " I was in Java 
and Sumatra," he proceeded to state, " and regular 
Japanese islands they are. The Japs mean to have them 
some day. Mysterious soldiers and sailors were con- 
stantly appearing, staying for a week or two, and then 
disappearing. The Japs must expand because they 
are over-populated. They are ambitious, too, and 
some say over-educated." 

To the writer personally the Japanese are delightful, 



264 MEXICO 

and she has many warm friends among them. Surely 
they have " arrived," and need no further expansion. 
Individual nations must work out their own salvation 
in their individual countries. 

" From the islands," my visitor continued, " I went 
to Shanghai, where, through some passport muddle or 
other, I was interned for a year. Afterwards the most 
valuable of my papers went down with the Arabia, and 
that detained me. The Suez Canal, as we passed 
through, was most interesting. All about us were 
camps, soldiers, camels, dug-outs and all the para- 
phernalia of war. It was a fine scene to witness. They 
wouldn't let any Germans through the Canal : two of 
them were sent right back." And he laughed uproariously. 

Shock Number Four. 

For by this time one felt pretty confident he was a 
pro-German — if not something more definite. 

In fact, one was now careful to answer all questions 
in the key demanded by the situation. 

When my interlocutor asked and re-asked anxiously 
whether I knew a certain high authority at the Foreign 
Otfice, I answered bluntly, " No." (A high-pressure 
tarradiddle.) 

When he waxed inquisitive on the food question, he 
extracted the information that there was no shortage. 
" All the talk on that head," one assured him blandly, 
" is mere newspaper stuff. Go round the hotels your- 
self and give your orders freely, and you'll see how 
England spells the bogey- word ' shortage.' 

'' The money question," one continued, " you say 



A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 265 



the War Loan is going badly ? Wait Tor tlic finish, the 
curtain of the play. We have millions in the country — 
millions quite untapped as yet. We can still carry on 
the war for years, if necessary. Indeed, look at our 
growing armies, now over six million volunteers, our 
flowing tide of munitions — Great Britain is only taking 
off her coat, just going to begin in earnest. We are 
spending over seven millions a day, two millions of which 
go to the Allies." 

The visitor, perhaps a thought depressed, fortified 
himself with three cups of tea. 

Conning over my visitor that night after his retire- 
ment, one felt that the mare's-nest formula was in- 
adequate. One became so uneasy that it seemed well 
to unburden oneself to what Acts of Parliament call 
*' competent authority." Through the telephone the 
burden — especially as related to the Indian episode, all 
of which cannot be repeated in these pages — was con- 
fided to a competent bosom. 

" It may be a mare's-nest," I concluded, " but I want 
to see you." 

At 9.45 next morning Authority, on the way to its 
competent office, called, to have reiterated, with bated 
breath, yesterday's burst of confidence. 

At one o'clock the telephone bell gave a tinkle. 
Authority and Competence had together diagnosed the 
case. No further communication whatever was to be 
held with that puzzling dropper from the blue. 

Yet he tried again, poor fellow. 

Not content with leaving books at the door he 



266 MEXICO 

'phoned. My secretary cheered him with the informa- 
tion that I had gone out of town. When should I 
return ? Somehow my secretary didn't know (another 
tarradiddle of high voltage). 

On Monday came two more books and a letter. 

On Tuesday he rang up to know if he had dropped 
£2 at the flat. 

On Wednesday he wrote another letter, entreating 
his hostess to be " mum." 

To every 'phone inquiry my secretary replied as before, 
without reduction of voltage. 

And who did the persistent fellow turn out to be ? 

Competent Authority knew him. The innocent 
American, so new to London, so anxious for sympathetic 
help, for guidance through the mazes of a strange city, 
so fresh from his amateur toil on shipboard, had come 
straight from jail. For a whole twelvemonth harsh 
laws had kept him there in Singapore, for a matter of 
gun-running in the enemy's interests. And his only two 
or three days in London were the climax of two months in 
Pentonville. He was a Mexican- American-German spy. 



CHAPTER XVI 



A PEEP AHEAD 



THE history of Mexico is knitted up with the 
history of the world. The skein is tangled ; 
but, thanks to the Kaiser, peoples will be knit 
together and great questions finally solved, not in the 
way he intended, but in the way the world — finally 
banded together against him — will decree. Great 
Britain and her Allies stopped his plans, overthrew his 
schemes and proved the buffer for the whole world 
against Prussianism for three long years. 

Recurring to that strange visitor's report of the over- 
running of Java and Sumatra by the Japanese, can it 
be that, as Prussia wished to be Dictator of Europe, 
Japan aims at being Dictator of Asia ? 

Already the Japanese are firmly planted in Corea and 
Formosa, and pretty well established in China, where 
five hundred Germans were in Government employ- 
ment. The Japanese are educated, intelligent, enter- 
prising and ambitious. Their neighbours the Chinese 
are uneducated, slow, honest almost to a fault, and with 
little knowledge of the world outside their own country ; 
the ambitions of the outer world have not yet entered 

267 



268 MEXICO 



their souls. Nevertheless, China will be the greatest 
country of the Eastern world some day. Their punc- 
tilious honesty will make them so, in spite of Prussian 
inoculation. After Von Hintze, a former naval officer 
and super-intriguer, and his forty satellites had been to 
Petrograd, they went on to Mexico to stir up anti- 
American sentiment, and then to China. This was a Ger- 
man ten years' jaunt through Russia, Mexico and China. 

The Japan-China question must for the present 
remain an unknown quantity, a permanent solution 
of which may come eventually through American 
intervention. The East must be straightened out after 
the West. 

Three months before the United States entered the 
war a well-known author sent a letter from Washington 
in which he said : 

" You will not be surprised to hear that both Japan 
and Germany are deeply engrossed in Mexico, and that 
the attitude of Wilson to the war can always be deviated 
or checked by affairs in Mexico." 

In an April number of that brilliant political weekly 
New Europe, Mr. Tokiwo Yokoi gave the following as 
Japan's impelling reasons for entering the war : 

The need of destroying Tsingtau, Germany's military 
and commercial stronghold in the East, from which 
strong base she could have carried on an immense 
scheme of intrigue both in China and India. 

The advantage to Japan of overthrowing German 
control of Constantinople and the Dardanelles, and 
seeing her ally, Russia, in possession of the same. 



A PEEP AHEAD 269 

Japan's interest in the lasting settlement of the 
Polish, Alsace-Lorraine and Bohemian questions. 

The Liberals of Japan understand fully that the vic- 
tory of Prussian militarism would have encouraged the 
militarist and reactionary tendencies in their own 
country. 



And what of Britain ? 

In the early days of 1917 the Germans were beaten. 
They had known it for many long months. Their guns 
were dwindling, ours were ever increasing. Their 
men were lessening, both in numbers and moral, while 
ours were growing day by day. Our airmen flew over 
their lines at Arras, Bullecourt, Vimy, Messines, etc., 
photographing their hiding-holes, and re-photograph- 
ing the destruction wrought by our guns. The greatest 
explosion — Messines Ridge — known even to modern 
warfare was over, and the German " impregnable " line 
was being rolled back slowly but surely to the Fatherland. 

Our fleet had guarded the seas for well-nigh three 
years ; we had fought our hardest on land, and were 
also financing our Allies. We were still persistently 
losing from one to three hundred officers a day, with 
casualties to the amount of four or five thousand men. 
We had become accustomed to this awful sacrifice of 
our manhood ; to a wastage which, wonderful to relate, 
was always cheerfully made good from that six million 
volunteer army and its later adjunct of conscriptionists. 



270 MEXICO 

And, meanwhile, our aeroplanes, tanks and armoured 
cars were being used in Russia, our heavy howitzers, 
supplemented by monitors in the Gulf of Trieste, helping 
Cadorna's army to break the Austrian line between 
Gorizia and the sea. Palestine was a heavy drain 
upon our troops and resources, Mesopotamia was no 
sinecure. Watching the ever-unrestful north-west 
frontier of India was a fleet of aeroplanes, used for the 
first time in Indian warfare in 1916-17, to say nothing of 
our sitting armies in France and Belgium, at Salonica, 
Gaza and Bagdad. Stupendous, indeed, was the 
financial strain of maintaining our many and far-distant 
campaigns. 

When the real history of Armageddon comes to be 
written the names of Britain and the Dominions will 
stand forth upon every page. 

Just as one is always polite to the guest within one's 
house and endeavours to feed him on one's best, so one 
is extra polite to visitors and allies ; and on these lines 
we often heard more — a little to the chagrin of our men 
at times — of the doings of Australians, Canadians and 
South Africans than those of our own troops from the 
British Isles. 

The United States joined the Allies April, 1917, 
to our joy, and we eagerly looked for their substantial 
help by the spring of 1918. 

We fully recognized the magnificence of President 
Wilson's speech, made a few days later, which showed 
him as an idealist of the highest quality and no longer 
too proud to fight, except on a typewriter. 



A PEEP AHEAD 271 



Why English-speaking people did, however, rejoice 
doubly was because America and Britain were to fight 
shoulder to shoulder by land and sea ; for every thinking 
man and woman regrets our stupid policy towards 
America years ago that lost us their friendship. Nor 
do we forget how fine a comradeship marked the con- 
joint work of the British, Russian and American troops 
in the relief of Pekin during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. 

We recognized that the main cause of the President's 
long delay was the necessity for unifying American 
public opinion. At heart he had always been pro-Ally, 
if report be true, together we must work for the final 
disarmament of the world. 

Above all we recognized the supreme need of a clean- 
cut and permanent understanding between the United 
States and Britain, both for the eonsohdation of peace 
inter se, and for the insistent future maintenance of the 
world's peace — possibly by the already foreshadowed 
League of Peace. 

Away with the Monroe Doctrine, which the New 
Republic (May 15th, 1915) said, " has been allowed to 
flourish under the benevolent protection of British 
sea-power." 

Changed we are indeed — at long last, and by virtue 
of the greatest cataclysm in history. 

Fear of consequences, fear of illness and pain, Icar of 
action and responsibility, fear of age and fear of death 
have all passed away. 

Enterprise, daring, and meeting death with confidence 
are the outcome of the war. 



272 MEXICO 

Great Britain found herself. 

War has made men love and long for homes more 
than ever ; but it has given girls the first taste of in- 
dependence. A small revolution which appears 
problematical at the moment, but which will never- 
theless bring a better understanding between the sexes 
when peace returns to the world. 

But what shall be said of the preceding change which, 
sweeping over the Germans like a flood, has made 
possible a cataclysm but three j^ears ago so unthinkable ? 

Thirty odd years since, when the writer was at school 
among them, the Germans were a charming and clever 
people : simple, familj^-loving, artistic, musical, senti- 
mental and religious. Such was the delightful Germany 
of the eighties. 

But a dictator, a Hohenzollern, arose among them, 
thrust aside a great safeguarding Pilot, and called in 
destruction ; by overloading them, first with a wealth 
of caviare that their stomachs could not digest, then 
with a wealth of champagne that their heads were too 
weak to stand. 

My last visit to Germany was in 1906, when the fore- 
runner of this book appeared in a German translation 
and was received with acclaim by the German Press.* 
Why all that eulogy ? Was it then in the minds of the 
politicians to annex Mexico and all her wealth — who 
knows ? And why did they translate everything I 

* "Der Schopfer des Heutigen Mexiko"; and the Preussicher 
Jahrbiicher gave a long and flattering article on the original, suggesting 
jt should be translated. 



A PEEP AHEAD 278 



ever wrote on Mexico, even to magazine articles, for 
their military schools and manuals ? 

Conceive a Mexico Germanized d la Prussian Poland : 
her mines and oil-fields exploited in the German interest, 
her haciendas and vast ranches expropriated, her Indian 
children flogged for refusing to sing German national 
anthems. 

What did the Kaiser want ? 

The answer is easy. The Kaiser, being one of the 
most far-sighted, imaginative brains in the whole history 
of the world, saw that the wealth amassed in Germany 
must be spent outside Germany in further development 
for Germans. He saw that the vast population had 
outgrown the hemmed-in Fatherland, and was fretting 
at the bars for freedom and expansions, a state of feeling 
only held down by the strictest Prussian militarism. 
He doubtless knew that the Socialist party was getting 
stronger every day below the surface, for above the 
surface it was not allowed to rear its head. 

A man of indomitable will, of great power and mental 
as well as physical strength, his danger to mankind lay 
in his religious belief. There is no such menace as the 
religious fanatic. The Kaiser was a religious fanatic. 
He honestly believed he was God's chosen arm and ally. 
He told the world again and again that he and God 
were marching together for the good of mankind. 
And he told his own people so continually of this great 
inspired power of his that at last he really seemed to 
hypnotize them. They became as plastic as clay in his 
hands. He muzzled the Press, so that Germany never 

i8 



274 MEXICO 



knew the true story of the origin of the war, or how it 
went from day to day. 

A man of such power and such resource naturally 
asked himself why so many of the best sons of Germany 
left their homeland, why they did so well in the 
United States ; and as he deeply regretted the loss of 
these adventurous spirits, over whom he lost control, 
he naturally felt that South America and Mexico — 
which, although it lies northward, is more southern in 
climate and thought than Argentina — would be good 
fields for German expansion, for the overflow of German 
gold and babies, and would add lustre to his crown. 

His plan was well conceived, and his plan was well 
carried out. Germans had insidiously crept in to all 
sorts of odd corners as merchants or agents or just as 
voyagcurs ; but anyway there they were, one and all 
doing their best to ingratiate themselves in order to 
win a place in the sun. 

Somehow they didn't succeed. Germans in the 
western world were not popular. Perhaps they wanted 
too much, perhaps they Avere too gushing and polite. 
They did, however, sell their wares, because they brought 
their catalogues ready translated into Spanish or 
Portuguese and had already themselves acquired these 
tongues, so they had the inestimable advantage of talk- 
ing to the people in their own language. The north 
quickly saw the advantage of this. The great Pan- 
American Union was founded in Washington, and 
American agents, equipped with these tongues and these 
translated catalogues, ran the Germans hard in the south. 



A PEEP AHEAD 275 

The first direct steamer (British, forsooth I) from New 
York to Brazil and Argentina, sailed from New York 
the day after Christmas, 1912. The writer was one of 
the few women passengers. Nearly everyone else was a 
commercial traveller, and all of them were American 
or German — at every port we came to, Barbados, Bahia, 
Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo or Buenos Aires, 
we dropped these men, with their ploughs, harvesters, 
water-mills, milkers, separators, thrashers, binders, 
engines or motor-cars. They worked hard to get 
business, and they got it, both the Americans and the 
Germans. It was a race for trade between the United 
States and Germany. 

England had been firmly established as a pioneer for 
several generations, and, dozing, sat still where these 
others pushed ahead ; but, strange as it may seem, while 
they really did push ahead because the countries were 
expanding, England never lost her place as the producer 
of much that is best, and therefore constantly in 
demand. 

Britain will keep her place — if only she will mend her 
ways, slough off her most dangerous weaknesses. 

If individuals would only give up talking so much of 
their rights, their own ridiculous little rights, and think 
less of themselves and more of other people and their 
own nation's right, what a blessing it would be. If, 
instead of men " downing tools " for sixpence they would 
think of men downing their own lives for their country, 
what an uplifting of mankind would be vouchsafed. 
They only want their rights for themselves, those strikers 

i8* 



276 MEXICO 



and revolutionaries ; they care nothing of the rights of 
civilization. Their ethics are small, their stupidity- 
supreme. One can do so much more bj'^ example and 
gentle reasoning than by silly ways and harsh words. 
Labour can do nothing without capital. Capital has to 
stand all the rack and anxiety. Capital can do nothing 
without labour, although machinery will oust half the 
labour. War exigencies and women have shown us that 
speeding up is compatible with proficiency. Ambition 
is a fine thing and hard work does no man harm. 

The poor Mexican still lolls. His people are the 
product, of course, of a southern clime, and they are 
proverbially inherently idle, for the sun affects them, 
and thins their blood and their vitality. Besides, they 
were conquered by Spain — in the great days of Spain, 
it is true, when she not only colonized but encouraged — 
but Spain has fallen back since then, and Mexico has 
never gone forward sufficiently to hold true to herself. 
She was held together by one man. When he left she 
tumbled to pieces like a pack of cards. 

National progress demands a better understanding 
between employer and employed. Each seems to 
think the other a thief. The Mexican peon considers 
the ranchero a thief and vice versa. Trade unions 
limit output in so-called educated lands. Customs 
limit output in uneducated lands. I have seen ore 
ground by a donkey going round and round till the 
hoofs were eaten off its fetlocks, and the natives pre- 
ferred that style to grinding by machinery. I have 
seen corn ground in Mexico between two stones as in 



A PEEP AHEAD 277 

ancient Egypt ; but the day has surely come when 
there must be no limit of output in any land, either on 
the side of the individual or the stuff he works. Edu- 
cation is the mainspring, and without proper, sound 
education of things that matter, the watch stops, and 
the nation snaps like the mainspring of a time-keeper. 

Land grants must be given to the Mexican, and he 
must be taught how to work his land and take pride 
in his own property. He must be inspired to be self- 
reliant and self-supporting. 

Germany was forced into Prussianized military 
education. 

The United States educated itself at its magnificent 
free night schools. 

Great Britain didn't give herself a proper chance, 
there were no night schools and little encouragement. 

We want better education, especially technical, 
scientific and ethical education in England, and they 
want more and better education both technical, 
scientific and ethical in Mexico. The two countries 
cannot be educationally compared ; but the Mexican 
is fighting for so-called freedom with little education, 
while the British workman is fighting for so-called 
rights with very indifferent knowledge. 

Education, and the flutter of the Stars and Stripes 
in the schools, made the United States what she is 
to-day. 

Extra education, if one may call it extra in the case 
of the bulk, the masses of the people, works two ways. 
Extra education in Germany^made the masses into 



278 MEXICO 



military machines. Extra education in America has 
made America. Every youth, once done with his 
public school (our county council school) where all 
classes rub shoulder to shoulder, works for his wages 
in the present, and attends the above-mentioned free 
night schools to improve his future. Everyone seems 
to go to night schools. The typist is not content to 
type all day and go to cinemas and music-halls all the 
evening, or to spend her money on blouses and hats ; 
she leaves her day's work, has a good solid meal, and 
at seven or eight o'clock is at a night school learning 
French, Chemistry, Literature, Banking, Optics, Cook- 
ing, anything and everything. She becomes an 
expert, and in time she becomes typist to — let us say 
an optician if she studies optics ; and on she goes, 
step by step, until at last, having learnt the job of the 
man above her, she gradually steps into his shoes. And 
so on all up the scale. The desire for education is 
there. Every man and woman educates himself or 
herself, and that makes the ambition and success of 
America. America is no man's land and it is every 
man's land. America represents nothing, and America 
represents everything. She is a great nation. 

Lower down the educational scale comes Great 
Britain. 

Our education is all wrong. The bulk of the people, 
the masses, are none the better for knowing where 
India is, or that there was once a woman called Queen 
Anne. A little knowledge of that kind is useless, a lot 
of it is invaluable. We teach them the little, and 



A PEEP AHEAD 279 

don't inspire them to want the more. Result, our 
factories are full of half-educated, self-centred, un- 
patriotic people whose one idea is self, and "self" 
ends in strikes. They are discontented, they don't 
know why, they can't think or reason, and so they 
strike, their own little individual grievance being of 
more importance to them than the whole Empire. 

It is the same tale — only more so — -in Mexico, where 
education, or the want of it, played a large part in the 
national havoc. 

In the upper classes (hateful words) instinct teaches 
us to be straight and honourable, just as it does the 
thoroughbred to race or jump hurdles that the shire 
horse can't tackle and has no instinct except to avoid. 
Our masses, brought up in different conditions, are not 
taught the value of character, their duty to the State 
or the origin of the word citizen. These things should 
be inoculated. They are more important to them 
than India's place on the map, or Queen Anne's reign. 

The little board school girl may gradually become 
the board school miss. Her horizon is very small, 
and she merely teaches other board school boys and 
girls along her own lines of education, with no higher 
ideal, no ambition, and no knowledge of the im- 
portance of character. Morals, thrift, decent language, 
honesty, cleanliness, unselfish dealings with others 
are seldom thought of. These children are not taught 
an idea as a whole. To look upon the country as a 
whole, but merely from their own puny personal point 
of view. 



280 MEXICO 



Gentlewomen had formerly never entered the working 
area as they did after the war note sounded in 1914. 
Then they saw the factories and factory life, slums 
and slum life as a whole, and they were horrified. 
Their influence bore good fruit ; but that influence 
was only in spots, and the whole educational dog must 
be tackled and not his spots. The mingling of the 
classes was deficient in England ; but it was far, far 
worse in Mexico. The rich Spanish-Mexican, with a 
home in Paris or Madrid, knew nothing whatever of 
his peasantry. He did nothing to educate them, 
amuse them, or improve them. They toiled. He 
spent. The land was his. The work was theirs. 
Things were bad, very bad, and it seems strange on 
looking back that Diaz with his wide vision did not see 
how bad they were. He lacked the idealist's imagination. 



Can anything be done through the cinema — not 
only in Mexico, but in England — to teach the well- 
meaning but insensitive more vitally the game of 
thrift, noAV that it is a game of national life and death ? 
Well-meaning ; yes, people are often well-meaning, 
and yet are addicted through ignorance to crass and 
lamentable wastefulness, and a word suggesting thrift 
from the mistress is interpreted as meanness in the 
kitchen. One can hardly blame the servants, perhaps, 
because they are not sufficiently taught thrift, duty 
and discipline in the schools, and the most wasteful 
homes in the country are the homes of the poor. These 



A PEEP AHEAD 281 

" poor " are the rich to-day by the chances of war, 
and the " rich " are poor through the imposition of 
endless taxation. 

Education should first teach every child to be a 
good citizen. It should be good in its home, good out- 
side its home, true to the best ideals, and always 
remember it is just a bit in the puzzle scheme of life, 
and must do its very best in citizenship. 

No one should grow up to depend on anyone else. 
From our youth onwards we should ourselves provide 
for our old age. Once the spirit of saving is inculcated, 
it grows apace like nettles, and stings others who try 
wrongly to grasp our gains. If only the peon could be 
taught to work and save, to be ambitious and work 
till he attains his own bit of land, to become self-reliant 
and eschew that cursed drink pulque, a new country 
could rise out of the ashes of this Mexican revolution. 

He is still at heart a wild man, a man of the virgin 
forests, a man of the mountains — and his wife is his 
slave. The low-born Mexican woman knows nothing, 
and wants to know nothing. 

On the other hand, the British lady to-day must know 
everything. She has to be able to show domestics every- 
thing, and instead of being merely a cook, a housemaid, 
a parlourmaid, or a nurse, she has to do a good bit of the 
work for everyone, and think out and supervise the rest 
of it. She is unpaid and often unthanked, and generally 
home-bound. Nevertheless, our home life must not 
be allowed to slip away from us. When we institute 
co-operative house-keeping we shall apparently live 



282 MEXICO 

more publicly, because it is better and cheaper ; but 
we shall always retire like rabbits to our own warrens, 
to our own armchairs and writing-tables, book-cases, 
beds and sofas — our own, all our very own. Oh, the 
joy of these three words, " our very own." In our 
own room (or rooms) we shall have the privacy so 
necessary to happiness, to individuality and to home life. 

Home life is the backbone of the country. Home 
life is the map on which are spread the inherited chattels 
of our forbears, and the slices of our own individual 
taste. Show me a home and I gauge its occupant. 
Home life does not mean living in lodgings or a fur- 
nished flat ; but in one's own single room or rooms, 
providing one's own toys and playthings, where every- 
thing is one's own ; where every little article is asso- 
ciated with a little sentiment, and has a little pride of 
place attached. Those personalities are joys to all 
of us. And yet the poor Mexican lives in a mud hut 
or a reed tent, while all his belongings can be tied up 
in a handkerchief. 

Mexicans must be taught to make homes and value 
homes. They must learn that a railway siding or a 
station or a street corner is not a place to sleep in. 
They must build up homes. 

Great rebuilding schemes will come with the end 
of the war. As we build up a better, cleaner society, 
we must build up better, cleaner homes. Our fighters 
appreciate their homes more than ever after the 
horrors of war. Women, and women alone, can make 
these homes real homes : but the architect of the 



A PEEP AHEAD 283 

future nnist see that everything possible is done to 
economize labour, to baffle dirt, and erect hot-water 
supplies and kitchens, wash houses and nurseries 
according to modern requirements. 

Every good life radiates good, just as every bad one 
leaves an inky smirch. Goodness always yields high 
interest ; badness may thrive for a short time, but is 
always found out. And the same applies to the home. 
Life is such a tiny span. It is nothing to the billions 
of years of this great universe, and yet every life born 
should leave the world better, not worse, for it is 
transient, and every home should leave its stamp. 
The home is the cradle of the race. 

They say war is the young man's life ; it is the old 
theorist's death. 

Nations learnt more in three years of war than in 
thirty years of peace. Everything developed, every 
science was keyed to concert pitch, every chord of 
human feeling vibrated with love and sympathy, 
hatred and vice. As gold is tried by fire, humanity 
is tried by war, and our homes must be worthy of all 
thej'^ have cost us to defend. Mexicans have destroyed 
the homes of the rich ; but they have not built up 
homes for the poor. That home-building is a science 
they must learn with modern education, and evolution 
and pride of possession. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 



THE Kaiser's ambition to annex half Europe 
failed. If, as suggested before, Japan has 
an}^ real thought of annexing half the East, 
let her pause and think. Nations differing in thought 
and language are not easily annexed. Let the Japs 
take warning. To-day expansion by process of seizing 
other peoples' property is an impossibility. 

Mexico could and would have been a great Prussian 
ally if the Entente Powers had not won the war and 
already beaten Prussia before America entered the 
arena. 

Europe welcomed the United States as a moral 
force — but it came too late to save millions of good 
lives and the destruction of hundreds of townships 
and thousands of acres of agricultural land. 

If we were disappointed at America's acceptance 
not merely of the Lusitania outrage, but of the further 
submarine piracy that went on month by month 
unpunished, we must bring a seeing eye to bear upon 
a complex situation. The Atlantic seaboard was 
fired quickly enough ; but a flame takes time to spread 

284 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 285 

through a huge country, a community of a hundred 
milHon souls of mixed race. This vast congeries must 
be made one in sentiment : doubtless its President 
could not stir with but half a nation at his back. Its 
unification, especially in face of the unresting pro- 
paganda of a cunning enemy in its midst and Mexico 
gnawing at its vitals, was a tremendous problem. 
Happily the Zimmermann plot, as said, proved an 
instant and complete solution of the difficulty, awaken- 
ing even the West, indifferent hitherto, to a great 
realization. 

By that one bad stroke the Germans put the game 
into President Wilson's hands. 

And the game once started, with how fine a com- 
bination of vigour, foresight and sound judgment 
was it carried through, alike by President and people. 
Instructed by our mistakes, they played, from the very 
outset, to win. Millions of money were raised, as if 
by magic. Compulsory Service, the great pill so 
nauseous to democracies, was swallowed with little 
more than a murmur. Food, munitions, railways, 
shipping were put under State control. When Regis- 
tration Day came, ten million men gave in their names 
in a single twelve hours. General Pershing's " standard 
bearers," after fighting their way through the enemy 
submarines, brought their fresh blood — with a splendid 
promise of more and ever more to follow — to the sorely- 
tried Army of France. The aeroplane industries of 
the States became a vast hive whose out-put may, 
by 1918, provide the knock-out blow to Prussianism. 



286 MEXICO 

This great influx of new strength came, moreover, 
just when Russia, in her throes, was staggering weak 
hopes, shaking even strong ones. 

Lord Bryce, one of our greatest statesmen, writers 
and diplomats, never wavered in his assurance of final 
victory until the Russian cloud so unexpectedly 
darkened the sky for the Allies, 

America's coming in brightened afresh a mist- 
dimmed firmament. 

As Ian Hay says, " This war is being won by second 
lieutenants." Can we doubt but that the young 
American officer, who has gone through the severe 
three or four years' curriculum at West Point, will 
secure a high place in this connection ? To-day there 
are admirable training camps for the 40,000 young 
American officers who have come forward in precisely 
the same spirit as our own young fellows did three 
years before from School and University. In the 
United States, as with us, the Idle Rich have come to 
the fore — have come into their own, one might almost 
say, proving to the hilt their value at a supreme national 
crisis. 

America knows now, if she failed to grasp the truth 
at first, that this is a war for freedom and democracy — 
and that the burden of finishing the war must rest 
principally upon the shoulders of John Bull and Uncle 
Sam, while Mexico looks on. 

Hurrah for Uncle Sam, his hard-set will and heart, 
his strong brain, and the army of millions he is fast 
bringing to birth 1 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 287 



Among otlier changes wc Biitons were transmuted 
into a great military nation ; and so it was that Easter, 
1917, found us, after winning the possibly crucial 
Battle oi" Arras, pushing forward our gigantic new army 
of niilHons towards (jermany, partly hy the very road 
along which our miniature Expeditionary Force of a 
lew thousands had retired from Mons in 1911. Onee 
recovered from the shock of the sudden and unexpected 
Cerman onrush, in two and a half years wc had 
brought into being such a force of men, guns and 
munitions as, before this Armageddon, the world 
had never seen, and wc; were crumbling up those 
" impregnable fortresses " built by the Germans 
after the great rush for which we were all so 
imprepared. America had joined us : then Mexico 
began to wobble. Carran/a, who had got rid of the 
United States troops ami was onee more master ol' 
his own country, iit tuiii wanted mon; help from 
(Germany. The Kaiser after nearly three years began 
to feel that he could no longer su[)port Mexico sufli- 
ciently for her to make a real stand against the United 
States, which she had defied for live years and 
constantly irritated almost to the |)oiMt of a breacli ; 
but which was now in its turn contemplating the 
creation of a great army, an army which may some 
day be turned against Mexico. 

Carranza's telegram to congratulate the noble 
William on his birthday, with the landing of three 
himdred (iermans, bolstered friendship only for a time. 
More Huns could not be spared, for, with the prospect 



288 MEXICO 



of Americans on European soil a year later, Prussia 
knew it must harbour its resources at home, that, 
in fact, the irritation it had caused the States through 
Mexico had not been of much avail. 

And the French ? 

Soon, no later than April 17th, the news reached 
us that our steadfast, brilliant and splendid Ally, 
recovered from the long strain of Verdun, was striking 
in with all his might on the right of the British attack. 
From Lens to St. Quentin our line was pressing on — • 
from Soissons to Rheims France had now opened an 
offensive as glorious, capturing position after position, 
and therewith adding 10,000 German prisoners to 
our week's haul of 14,000. By July the Germans 
were being rolled back to Germany, and Mexico — 
like Spain and Sweden — was beginning to lose faith 
in her Kaiser friend. No longer stunned by the 
German rush, we beat them back in their own coin, 
with gas and with tunnelling explosives, and dug them 
out of the underground fortresses they had built two 
years before. No one had time to think of Mexico and 
her half-educated peoples. The greatest brains of the 
world were at war against the greatest devices and 
strategies of a quarter of a century. Lust for gain 
was being crushed hour by hour by the Entente Powers 
in Europe, and the United States was girding her loins 
to take her share next year. 



War brought us all out. Don't let peace and 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 289 

prosperity send us back to our sleepy, rotten, selfish, 
jealous lives. Philosophy should be taught in every 
school, and logic should not be forgotten. We are a 
nation of new men and women, comrade men and 
women. Let us remain so. 

Every human being is possessed of more courage 
than he wots of. A fact strongly shown in war, where 
the simplest lad has often done the greatest deeds. 
We are so apt to distrust our strength, so, when all 
surrounding us are putting forth their best, each un- 
obtrusively suggests greater possibilities to the other. 
Courage is born of opportunity. 

Tenacity is a great gift. It can be encouraged. War 
had brought out tenacity. War is a cruel but great 
school. To the uneducated Mexican it may be pure 
butchery without thought, to the Prussian it may be 
butchery with philosophical reasoning ; but to the 
average of mankind it brings out the very best thought 
through a slough of the very worst. 

During the summer a curious situation arose in regard 
to the status of Germans in China. 

On April 10th, 1917, a German ex-marine was caught, 
under suspicious conditions, inside the Shanghai electric 
power station. The man was handed over for trial to 
the Dutch Consul-General. The trial was secret and 
conducted in the German tongue. Two officials of 
the German Consulate took part in the proceedings. 
Public opinion warmly demanded that China should take 
immediate steps to rectify this absurd state of things 
by regaining proper control over the German elements. 

19 



290 MEXICO 



A week later the German-Mexican question again 
cropped up. 

The German domination of Mexico, we learned from 
Washington, was becoming more marked. A newspaper 
had been suppressed as too sympathetic to the Allies ; 
it was even said that the funds of some Mexican banks 
were in jeopardy. Everywhere German propagandism 
was most active and virulent. 

There followed shortly news even more significant ; 
to wit that the Mexican Government had taken over, 
under plea of military necessity, the British railway 
running from Vera Cruz to Mexico City, and were 
about to take over the Tehuantepec railway, the owner- 
ship of which is shared between the Government and a 
British company. 

It became clear later that this amounted to confisca- 
tion, while the strong pro-German sympathies of 
Carranza and the Mexican Congress emphasized the 
possibility of war between Mexico and the United 
States. Should this eventuate, it is generally believed 
that the conquest of Mexico by an American army 
would involve a three-year campaign. 

At this time the influence of the priests had become 
very great in Mexico. All powerful before their over- 
throw by Juirez in 1863, impotent from that period to 
the downfall of Diaz, they had once again risen to power, 
and were doubtless a strong ally for the Kaiser, in Mexico 
as elsewhere. On April 19th the German Federal 
Council, to the surprise of the world, agreed with the 
Reichstag to abolish the law regarding the prohibition 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 291 

of the Order of the Society of Jesus of July 4th, 1872. 
And so, after nearly five-and-forty years, the Jesuits 
were to re-enter Germany and to be welcomed with 
open arms by the Kaiser. 

Why? 

Perchance because the Kaiser had found them useful 
in Ireland, where priests and Jesuits had done much to 
foment the rebellion, and in Russia, where revolution 
was brought about through the intrigues of Rasputin, 
a German Jesuit. Also because he wished to make 
friends again with the Pope, with whom he had fallen 
into such marked bad odour through his many iniquities 
— his murdering of Belgian priests, imprisoning of 
Cardinal Mercier, bombardment of Rheims Cathedral, 
and enslavement of harmless Belgian civilians. 

Next day we learned of an attempted rebellion by the 
Germans in southern Brazil, a well-armed rebellion, 
backed by munitions and artillery. The move appeared 
to be in the direction of Uruguay, whose Government was 
concentrating troops upon its frontier. 

Among the countless doings which must blacken 
the Hohenzollern escutcheon for at least a generation 
was one revealed to the world by the German Press 
itself — a thing so abominable that we might well refuse 
at first to credit it. It was from a letter in the 
Lokalanzeiger of April 10th that we first heard of the 
" Corpse Exploitation Establishment," 

The letter, from Karl Rosner, ran thus in translation : 

" We pass through Evergnicourt. There is a dull 

19* 



292 MEXICO 

smell in the air as if lime were being burnt. We are 
passing the great Corpse Exploitation Establishment 
(Kadaververwertungsanstalt) of this Army Group. The 
fat that is won here is turned into lubricating oils, 
and everything else is ground down in the bone 
mills into a powder, which is used for mixing with 
pigs' food and as manure. Nothing can be permitted 
to go to waste." 

What iTiust have been the horror of the Mexicans — 
at the time her sworn friends and allies — at this inhuman 
desecration by Germany of her own sacred dead ? 

In Mexico the reverential treatment of the dead is 
universal. The corpse is attired in all its best : the 
gentleman in his dress suit, the lady in her newest 
silk gown. Sometimes even now — following a former 
custom — the dead are buried clothed as nuns and friars, 
whole families being constantly employed in making 
the grave clothes {mortaja). The coffin is never 
screwed down, but fastened by a lock, the key of which 
is held by the chief mourner, who opens it — as pre- 
scribed by law for the prevention of murder and fraud — 
just before it is finally lowered. Once the writer came 
upon a touching scene. A dead baby, but eight or ten 
months old, was being watched by its mother. 

Poor mother ! She was only a child herself, little 
more than fourteen, and yet the chord of maternity 
had been struck, deeply, oh so deeply, down in her 
woman's heart. I looked at her mourning over her 
baby. Was ever more pathetic scene enacted in this 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 293 



world than the child-mother mourning over her baby 
doll ? The little thing was stretched out on a grass 
mat, and sitting on her heels beside it was the poor 
mother who had given it life. She was not crying. 
Some grief is too deep for tears ; she was barely moaning 
as she swayed herself to and fro and clenched her hands 
until the blood almost gushed from her slim brown 
fingers. 

Could such a country remain in alliance with the 
corpse-desecrators of Berlin ? 

Carranza seemed to think so— at least until the 
United States decreed to join the Allies and a strange 
rumour drifted across the Atlantic. 

It was said that Mexico was on the verge of breaking 
off relations with the Central Powers and also joining 
the Entente. The volte-face — surely the most Gilbertian 
ever perpetrated even by Mexico — was understood to 
be the result of Guatemala's example. The latter had 
not only, like Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras and Cuba, 
broken off with Germany, but offered its posts, rail- 
ways and territorial waters for use by the United 
States. Enough to make Mexico quail when she also 
saw she would no longer be bolstered up by Germany. 

At any rate it came to pass that, on June 26th, 1917, 
one of the leading papers in Mexico, called El Universal, 
inaugurated a national campaign actually advocating 
the severance of relations with Germany, and asserting 
that Mexico's place was by the side of the Entente 
Powers. El Universal expressed the views of many of 
the prominent leaders of the country's military and 



294 MEXICO 



political parties, to the effect that Mexico could no longer 
endure the violation of her neutrality caused by the 
presence of thousands of German spies in her midst. 
Some of them even went so far as to urge that, in order 
to uphold Mexico's ideals of justice, she should imme- 
diately declare war on Germany. The paper also 
clearly pointed out that the Latin-American ideals of 
Mexico incline towards the Allies rather than in the 
direction of the ideals of Pan-German absorption and 
militarism as expressed by Germany. 

Certainly if Germany could only have got Mexico 
embroiled in war against the United States, and if 
Germany had won in Europe while the West was busy 
with its own affairs, Mexico would have become a great 
Prussian possession ; a dumping ground for thousands 
of Germans, a market for German wares, and in fact a 
magnificent field for expansion. 

We know Germany wanted the whole of South 
America — her statesmen said so from time to time — 
but her plots were even deeper and more silently laid 
in Mexico. 

When the United States joined the Allies Carranza 
had a rude shock. His little German god fell from his 
pedestal as the gods of Montezuma fell before him. 
In the heat of the summer and the fall of the autumn 
leaf he saw the States arming day by day. He saw one 
South American land after another joining the Allies. 
He saw Cuba early in the fray, in words if not actually 
in deeds, and he realized that any possibility of alliance 
with Germany was now dead. No bolstering up with 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 295 



German money could help him now. Better turn to 
the British or Americans for support than fight those 
countries individually or collectively. 

Carranza, by August, 1917, was on one leg of the tour- 
legged chair. What was to be his next move ? 



Six months before there is not the slightest doubt that 
Germany was convinced of her power to bring Great 
Britain to its knees through the unrestricted use of 
submarines. It was verily and indeed a critical time for 
us, our ships sunk in the worst week — that ending 
April 22nd — amounting to 56, of which 41 were craft 
of 1,600 tons and over. But great men and women 
always rise to great occasions, and we found new 
ways of tackling this new scourge, which again and 
again torpedoed — with incredible barbarity — even our 
hospital ships. By June 3rd the list had sunk to 18, 
and, although in the following week a total of 30 looked 
ominous, a German journal was for the first time 
permitted to sound a note of despondency — to the effect 
that the submarine campaign could no longer be 
counted upon to bring about a British surrender. The 
passing of such a statement by the censor sounded the 
knell of the only hope that had remained to Germany 
after our conquest of the Zeppelin menace wellnigh a 
year before. 

Not only were our maimed and wounded, our merchant 
Jacks, our peaceful fishermen being murdered at sight 



296 MEXICO 

by the devilish submarines, but also the non-com- 
batants of many neutrals — even pro-German neutrals. 
Poor little Norway, our staunch friend, was suffering 
horribly. She — ^the third largest mercantile marine 
Power three years before — had lost a third of her 
merchantmen. Norway was embittered to the soul — 
and hungry. Her sailors had suffered. Many of them 
had been torpedoed several times. One stalwart 
Viking had actually been torpedoed nine times, and was 
itching to go to sea again. 

Germany would have liked Norway, Mexico and 
Spain as bases for her U boats. In fact, she used 
all three surreptitiously no doubt. 

A friend writing from Norway, June, 1917, 
remarked : 

" I am happy to say, that here the feelings against 
the ' culturists ' are running higher every day ; we 
find out things about them which I cannot write in a 
letter ; but would it do anybody any good to go to 
war against them ? A country of two and a half 
million inhabitants, but larger than England, and with 
a coast which in a straight line would stretch from the 
North Cape to Greece, cannot be defended by our- 
selves alone. I think, that what the Germans want, 
is to get us into war ; then they hope that Sweden 
at last would join them. But there is no danger of 
that any longer ; they are beginning to hate them as 
heartily in Sweden as we do here. 

" In the meantime, innumerable are the stories one 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 297 

hears of the Kaiser, many of them very amusing. They 
relate that he just now wrote to a great friend of his 
in Norway, the German Consul here, and said : 

" * In September the final victory will be mine, then 
I will come to Norway, to my dear Norway, and send 
out invitations for a great ball on board.' 
" The Consul answered : 

" * Don't, your Majesty, I and my old aunt would 
be the only ones to accept.' 

" One night the Emperor was very dispirited ; his 
.* daily victory ' had been so very negative that he 
had not even sent out a telegram to congratulate the 
Crown Prince. His wife had given him an execrable 
dinner, mostly consisting of macaroni ; and so he 
knelt down in his shirt and boots, and prayed to his 
war god : ' Dear God, I am tired of this valley of 
tears, I pray you to remove me from here and take 
me to yourself.' Suddenly the room was filled by a 
strong red light, and the devil was standing in a corner, 
tail, hoofs and all. 

" ' What do you want ? ' he said. 
" ' Are you my war god ?' the Emperor exclaimed aghast. 
" ' Certainly, dear Willy,' said the black one. 
" ' And now you come to take me to Hell ? ' 
" ' Certainly not,' said his subterranean majesty, 
' in Hell I have always been first, and I mean to remain 
the first in future. But you can have some fire and 
brimstone and start on your own.' " 



298 MEXICO 



We shall no more forget Norway, her friendship and 
her suffering, than we shall forget the pro-Germanism 
of Sweden and Spain. How these latter countries 
could retain that sentiment in face of Prussia's plain 
bid for the domination of Europe, of her countless bar- 
barities by land and sea that cry aloud to Heaven and 
stink in the nostrils of an amazed world, is a mystery 
indeed. We shall neither forget nor forgive it. But in 
the case of Sweden there was reason. Russia had 
behaved badly to Finland after grasping her from 
Swedish arms, and the fear was lest history should 
repeat itself, and Sweden also become the plaything of 
Russia as poor honest little Finland — the land of lakes 
• — had been. 

For some hundreds of years Finland belonged to 
Sweden, being conquered by the latter in the period 
1157-1323, and the stamp of Sweden was to be found 
on its inhabitants ; especially among the aristocracy, 
who still spoke that language in their homes. But in 
1809 Russia stepped across the frontier, seized Finland, 
annexed it as her own, and a year later the King of 
Sweden renounced all his claims. 

Considering that Russia conquered Finland she has 
been very generous, but, unhappily, she did not even 
understand the language of the people she governed, 
knew nothing of them or their ways, and, more than 
that, did not even worship in the same church. 

It was because the Finlanders behaved so well that 
the Tsar conceded much, and left them their independent 
constitution and their Lutheran Church. The Tsar 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 299 

Alexander I. was really the Grand Duke of Finland, 
which was ruled by a Governor-General, by the Imperial 
Finnish Senate, and by a Diet composed of four Houses 
— ^the Nobles, the Clergy, the Burghers, and the 
Peasants. The members of Parliament met every, 
three years, and had the power of voting money, 
altering the constitutional laws of the country, and 
regulating commercial enterprise. But the Church 
had the final decision in the Court of Appeal in both 
criminal and civil cases. 

Nicholas II., whom revolution thrust from his throne 
so dramatically in May, 1917, on ascending the throne 
promised to abide by his antecedents' vow to Finland ; 
he unfortunately broke that oath. 

Finland was a little place, and the oath seemed a little 
matter ; but it no doubt decided Sweden's attitude 
towards the Entente Powers, for she had never forgotten 
Russia's seizure of its smaller neighbour a hundred 
years before and feared she might herself be crushed 
as Finland had been under the Russian sway. 

Before the war the passport was as necessary in 
Finland as in Russia, because Finland belonged to the 
Tsars ; but still it did seem extraordinary that, as the 
Finns were Russian subjects, they should require a 
passport to take them in or out of Russia. This was 
the case, however, and if a man in Wiborg wanted 
to spend the day in St. Petersburg to shop and visit a 
theatre he had to procure a passport, a bit of red- 
tapeism which much annoyed the Finlander. 

Howbeit Russia, after her revolution, took a totally 



300 MEXICO 

new attitude towards Finland, whose prospect in conse- 
quence steadily brightened from that day. 

In the throes of her revolution Russia had to struggle 
with her socialists, the extremists of whose party were 
ready to make peace with Germany. As a check to 
these Leninists, as they were called, Britain sent more 
stores, with Labour speakers, and politely explained 
that Japan would be quite willing to take over 
Manchuria and Siberia if Russia should fail to keep 
faith with the Allies, and China was already buckling on 
her sword. 



These things may not appear to have much connec- 
tion with Mexico, yet in sooth their relation to it is vital. 
Had Prussia and Mexico, as suggested above, combined, 
where would the United States have been — and where, 
in the end, Mexico herself ? 

Europe was the buffer — the retaining bulkhead 
between Germany and her aims in North and South 
America. 

Although the Kaiser never himself set foot in South 
America or Mexico, his minions did their work well ; 
and no outside influence impinging upon Mexico was 
ever so strong, so mischievous, so dangerous as that of 
the Kaiser. 

There is no doubt about it that if things had gone 
as William II. wanted in 1916— just ten years after 
the story of this book starts with Diaz at the zenith 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 301 

of his power, he would have made a great coup with 
Mexico against the States, and possessed himself of 
one of the greatest countries of undeveloped possi- 
bilities in the world to-day. 

Only things didn't go on the Western Front as he 
planned, and he didn't annex Mexico under his all- 
tender banner. The United States, as said, never 
seemed to understand the Mexican situation. Indeed, 
after Roosevelt left — and he talked with knowledge 
on the subject — Washington seemed callous and 
ignorant on the question when I was last there in the 
winter of 1912. Much of the ruin is due to their 
lethargy — and to our want of intervention a year or 
so before. We — two great powers — allowed Mexico, 
once on the upward road, to slip back to sheer barbarism 
and debauchery. Much bloodshed lies on both our 
heads, and much of the world's development has been 
retarded. 

Great Britain will not interfere. It will be the pre- 
rogative of Mexico's nearest neighbour. Mexico is, 
however, once more beginning to raise her head, and 
may soon take her place again in international politics. 

And now, over three years after the opening of the 
European war, 40,000 Americans are in France learning 
the last routine drills to qualify them for entering the 
trenches. How many years more, one wonders, will 
it be, or perchance, mere months, before the first con- 
tingent of 40,000 Americans will boldly march into 
Mexico ? The thing will be inevitable unless Mexico 
takes herself strongly in hand. The United States, 



302 MEXICO 



when she has equipped an army and done her bit in 
Europe, must swoop boldly to the South and, if 
necessary, restore order by force in the land of Monte- 
zuma. Her policy of watchful onlooking in the 
Philippines, whom she allows to govern themselves, 
requires an army of 10,000 men — she must tackle 
Mexico in a similar fashion. 

It may take half a million men ; but it must be 
done. 

It is quite unlikel}' that another Diaz will rise in 
that land ; such men are rare in the entire world, and 
among the Indian population almost unknown. The 
United States will have to" treat Mexico as we have 
treated India, and in some ways she will have finer 
material, and far more civilized stuff to deal with 
than we had when Clive gave us India on the battle- 
field of Plassy. With the advance of thought and 
the quick interchange by post, telegraph and cable, 
more and more individual government is allowed to 
each country, a thing that was impossible in the old 
sailing days when protection had to be real protection, 
and government real government. It is hardly likely, 
nor would it be wise, for the United States to annex 
Mexico, for this would mean imending friction between 
utterly dissimilar peoples in whom hatred and distrust 
has been fostered for half a century in the Southern 
parts. But the wisdom and guidance of North America, 
her wealth of intellect and education will mean much 
to the poor blood-sodden land which has fallen back 
a century in civilization in the span of five or six years. 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 803 



A firm hand is wanted. A firm, civilized govern- 
ment with a civihzed figurehead of grit, determination 
and judgment, and Mexico will become to the United 
States a modified version of what Egypt, India and 
South Africa are to us — great countries with great ideals, 
present and future, in the brotherhood of a great empire. 
Mexico must not be submerged, but recreated as a free 
and happy and law-abiding nation. 

To sum up, let us repeat that the United States must 
intervene in Mexico, but must never annex it. Annexa- 
tion is against their policy, and neither party wants it. 

The States must allow Mexico at least to try — under 
strong guidance — to rule itself. But it is undeniable 
that a mighty tough job awaits the intervening power. 
It will be, at best, no light task to supervise so vast 
a country, and a nation and government so entirely 
unsympathetic. It will be necessary to send half a 
million of men right down to Mexico City, and after 
order is restored, to leave fifty thousand scattered about 
the big centres ; not to interfere, but to prove by 
moral suasion that Americans are sincere in their 
wish, as friends and neighbours, for good government. 

The Carranza regime is not yet at an end ; chaos 
still holds the upper hand in Mexico ; British properties 
and railways are being confiscated without our being 
in a position to resent these arbitrary acts. But — 
again thanks to the Kaiser — Great Britain and the 
States are in closer touch over Mexican affairs than 
ever heretofore. 



304 MEXICO 



Moreover, Mexican discontent with the state of affairs 
is extreme, and their insane hatred of the Americans, 
after the unhappy miHtary intervention, is intensified. 

The people, sick of revolution, would give anything 
for peace. Even the peons and revolutionists might 
now be led by Carranza, if only the German element 
would leave him alone. He could rely on the army — 
which although not so effective as it was under Diaz, 
is still strong — were it not for the corrupting taint of 
German influence, still doing its best to drag Mexico 
into the Great War on the side of Prussianism. Britain 
can never take the lead ; but she must help Mexico, 
who must repeal her constitution, treat foreigners with 
respect, uphold the rights of property, and strive to 
rehabilitate her finances and maintain order. 

The financial side has been largely helped by the 
soaring in value of Bar Silver, which has now reached 
the price of 44fd., a record since 1891. And happily 
Mexico is full of silver, both in ore and coin. 

Carranza has been played with by Germany because 
he is afraid of General Obregon, the Mexican socialist- 
military General with aspirations and German ten- 
dencies. The latter has done his best to get Mexico 
into the war on the German side, and has many German 
lieutenants in the Government ; but so far he has failed. 

If Carranza, the only possible ruler on the horizon 
at the moment, has a grain of wisdom he will shake off 
the Prussian influence, promptly slip into the war on 
the side of the Allies, and take over German shipping 
and gold. 



THE KAISER IN MEXICO 305 

As we ring down the curtain on the tragedies of 
Mexico, made beautiful by God's hand, but defamed by 
man's lust, the world must leave that country to work 
out its own salvation. Bigger thoughts engross men 
elsewhere, and her nearest neighbour, the United 
States, is too busy in the closing days of 1917 to make 
a protest or intervene in any way. America came 
into the war from no altruistic motives ; but because 
if Prussia conquered Europe, America would be her 
next goal, and she hoped to rely on Mexico and South 
America and the Germans in the States to help her. 
The Americans are fighting for America and their own 
future safety. 

If President Wilson later gets his teeth into Mexico 
as he has into the European War in its fourth year, 
then all his tardy waiting must be forgiven. He and 
his nation are rising to great heights. 
f^The whole world of democracy is fighting the last 
autocracy in Europe. 



20 



INDEX 



Agua Pkieta, 65, 66. 
Alamos, Sonora, 33. 
Alcolhuans, 135. 
Alexandra, Queen, 17. 
Alfonso XIII. 89, 122, 132. 
Alvarez, General, 149. 
Attila, The, 197. 
Aztecs, The, 62, 135. 

Badger, Admiral, 179. 

Barcelona, 203. 

Bavaria, The (Hamburg- America 

Line), 197. 
Bazaine, General, 9. 
Benton, Mr. 168-170, 185, 186. 
Bernstorff, Count, 244, 245, 248. 
Berriozabal, General, 6. 
Bethmann-Hollweg, Dr. 241, 248. 
Bismarck, Prince, 128, 235. 
Blanquet, General, 202, 203. 
Bogota, 238, 239. 
Bolivar, Simon, 29. 
Botha, General, 24, 235. 
Bravo (Gunboat), 194. 
Bristol, H.M.S. 202. 
British Legation, 67. 
Brownsville, Texas, 10. 
Bryan, W, J. 154-156, 170, 181, 

196, 200, 201. 
Bryce, Lord, 286. 

Cabrera, Luis, 246, 247. 
Cadena, 47. 
Cadorna, General, 270. 
Calero, Manuel, 150. 
Cambon, M. Jules, 245. 



Campania, The Convent de la, 6. 

Carbajal, President, 68, 200-203, 
207, 211. 

Carden, Sir Lionel, 68, 200, 207. 

Carlota, Empress, 44. 

Carnegie, Andrew, 164. 

Carralitos, 108. 

Carranza, President, 24, 74, 100, 
145, 170, 174, 179, 181, 185, 196, 
197, 200, 201, 202, 207, 208, 211, 
214, 237, 243, 246, 247, 251, 256, 
259, 260, 287, 290, 293-295. 

Chakiaberty, Dr. 260. 

Chang Husn, General, 94, 95. 

Chapultepec, Castle of, 44, 49, 137, 
144, 248. 

Charles IV. of Spain, 165. 

Chatham, Lord, 30. 

Chester, The (U.S.A.), 188, 189. 

Chicago, 17. 

Chichemecs, The, 135. 

Chihuahua, 136, 152. 

City of Havanna, S.S. 11-13. 

Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, 65. 

Coahuila, 152. 

Coayuca, 9. 

Cobos, 4. 

Colima, Mount, 103. 

Colombia, 200. 

Colotlan, 204. 

Conejos, 113. 

Cordoba, 183, 192. 

Corral, Ramon, 33, 38, 50, 51, 53, 
68, 74, 96, 98, 99, 114-115. 

Cort6z, Hernando, 18, 20, 44, 61, 
135. 

Cosio, Seiior, 60. 



808 



INDEX 



Cowdray, Lord (Sir Weetman 

Pearson), 249, 250. 
Cradock, Admiral, 186, 187. 
Creel, Seiior, 49, 58, 59. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 30. 
Crystal Palace, 121-122. 
Cuatla, 112. 
Cuba, 101. 
Cuernavaca, 68. 
Culiaean, 108. 

De la Baera, Senor, 24, 40, 59- 

60, 68, 70, 72, 76, 100, 101, 103, 

104, 106. 
de la Fiiente, Da\ad, 150. 
de la Torre, Ignicio, 112. 
Diaz, Madame Carmen, nie de 

Rubio, President PorJBrio Diaz' 

second wife, 16, 17, 83, 102, 119, 

123, 126, 132, 216-220, 223, 224. 
Diaz, Madame Delphina, nie 

Ortega y Reyes, President 

Porfirio Diaz' first wife, 9, 16. 
Diaz, General Felix (brother of the 

President), 4, 128. 
Diaz, General (nephew of the Presi- 
dent), 72, 114-115, 134, 136-138, 

151, 201. 
Diaz, General Porfirio, President 
(eight times) of Mexico : 

his influence on Mexican history, 1. 

his birth and early life, 2 et sq. 

his entry into public life, rapid 
advancement in the army, 4. 

takes part in the defence against 
the French, 5. 

his escapes from prison, 6-8. 

his first marriage, 9. 

appointed Commander-in-Cliief 
of the Army of Reorganiza- 
tion, 10. 

his daring return to Mexico, 
11-14. 

his enthusiastic reception, 15. 



Diaz, General Porfirio — con. 

death of his first wife and his 

second marriage, 16-17. 
his personal appearance, 17. 
begins his rule in Mexico, 18-19. 
Mexico under his Presidency, 20- 

24. 
his downfall, 26-32, 40. 
and Madero, 34, 37-40, 115. 
favours General Reyes, 35-36. 
and the INIexican Centenary cele- 
brations, honours conferred on 

him by foreign governments, 

43-46. 
elected President for the seventh 

time, 46. 
plot against his life, 49. 
and Madero's rebellion, 50-60, 

64^78, 97-99. 
his opinion of Madero, 53. 
attempted assassination of, 74. 
his resignation, 76-80, 96, 117. 
his flight from Mexico, 79-89» 

124-127. 
arrives in Paris, 89-90. 
his successful finance, 99. 
and General Huerta, 111, 112. 
his enterprises in Mexico, 117, 

118. 
in retirement, 119-133. 
visits London, 120-122. 
his reception in Germany, 122. 
in Paris, 123. 
at Napoleon's tomb, 127. 
his recreations, 129. 
visits Spain, 130-133. 
his death, 216-217. 
and Madame Diaz, 217-220, 223- 

225. 
characteristics, 219-223, 225-228. 
his tomb, 223-225. 
Diaz, Colonel Porfirio (son of 
President Diaz), 83-84, 89, 113, 
119, 120. 



INDEX 



809 



Douglas, East Arizona, 65. 
Dresden (German Cruiser), 202. 
Durango, 148, 152, 197. 

EcKHABDT, Baron von, 214, 244. 

Edward VII. 43, 122. 

El Oro Mines, 104. 

El Paso, see Juarez. 

Escobado, General, 11. 

Essex, H.M.S. 189. 

Eugenie, Empress, 17. 

Falli^res, Armand, President 

French Republic, 123, 133. 
Fanshaw, Captain, 202. 
Fernando VII. 165. 
Figueroa, 72. 
Finland, 230, 298. 
Fletcher, Mr. 214. 
Florida, 165. 
Franko, Senor, 184, 189. 
Funston, General, 197, 203. 

Galland, Captain, 6. 

Galveston, 101. 

Gamboa, Federico, 150. 

Garibaldi, General, 43. 

George V. 122. 

German Influence In Mexico, 235 

et seq., 284 et seq. 
Germany's Ambitions, 163. 
Gonzales, General, 10, 196, 221. 
Grey, Viscount (Sir Edward, K.G.), 

46i 
Guadalajara, 35, 104. 
Guadalupe, Shrine of, 14, 15, 101 
Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty, 166. 
Guatemala, 165. 
Guaymas, 149, 152. 
Guggenheim & Co. 106. 

Haiti, 200. 
Hale, Dr. 158. 
Havana, 209. 
Hay, Ian, 286. 



Hermione, The, 193. 

Hernandez, General, 10, 67. 

Heyking, Baron, 93-95. 

Hidalgo, Miguel, 3, 46. 

Hintze, von, 268. 

Huerta, General Victoriano, Presi- 
dent, 24, 82, 100, 107, 111-118, 
140-158, 172-174, 177, 179-181, 
183-189, 198, 200-209, 213, 214, 
237. 

Humboldt, Baron Alexander von, 
42. 

Husey, Ernest, 121. 

Igel, Herr von, 260. 
Ixtapa, 112. 

Jalatlaco, 4. 

Jalisco, 143. 

Jimenez, 108. 

Johnson, Charles, 67. 

Johnson, Lorenzo, 160. 

Jojutla, 109. 

Juarez (El Paso), 28, 65, 67, 68, 
71, 73, 147, 152, 204, 261. 

Juarez, President Benito, 3, 4, 10, 
35, 41, 45, 116, 204, 290. 

Juarez, Benito (son of the Presi- 
dent), 71. 

Juaves, The, 135. 

Kitchener, Lord, 221. 

Laconia, The, 247. 

Landa y Escandon, Sehor Guil 

lermo de, 44, 120. 
Laredo, 65. 
Lascurain, 205. 
Lerdo de Tejado, President, 10, 

11, 34. 
Limantour, Senor, 26, 27, 32, 38, 

46, 49, 52, 56, 57, 59, 65, 70, 

100, 200. 
Lind, John, 156. 



310 



INDEX 



London, General Diaz' visit to, 

120-122. 
Louisiana, 165. 
Lusitania, The, 284. 

Maas, Commander, 174. 

Madero, Don Daniel, 150. 

Madero, Ernesto, 107. 

Madero, Don Everisto, 150. 

Madero, President Francisco, 24, 27, 
28, 34, 37-39, 48, 50-54, 58, 64, 
66-68, 70-73, 75-77, 96, 97, 
100, 101, 103, 104-113, 115-117, 
134, 137-141, 146, 147, 151, 155, 
198, 202, 205, 207, 215. 

Madero, Gustavo, 50, 140. 

Madero, Don Manuel, 150. 

Madrid, 132, 133. 

Manzanillo, 254. 

Marquez, General, 4. 

Mary, Queen, 122. 

Maj'O, Admiral, 187, 188. 

Matamoros, 11, 65. 

Maximilian, Emperor, 5, 9, 41, 
127, 128, 256. 

Mazatlan, 152, 254. 

Meath, Lord, 171. 

Mercier, Cardinal, 291. 

Meson de la Reja, The, 5. 

Mexican Centenary Celebrations, 
43-47. 

Mexico, Races of, 135. 

Mexico City, 3, 14, 15, 21, 29-31, 
40, 44, 48-50, 63, 68, 72, 80, 101, 
103, 108, 123, 155, 179, 183, 186, 
200, 290. 

Michoacan, 149, 152. 

Minatitlan, 249. 

Miztecs, The, 135. . 

Monroe Doctrine, 164, 177, 180, 
237,271. 

Monterey, 106, 111, 160. 

Montezuma, Emperor, 44. 

Morelia, 116. 



Morelos, 136, 149. 

Morelos, General Jos6 Maria, 48. 

Napoleon I. 127, 165. 

Napoleon III. 128. 

Nauheim, 90, 119. 

Navarro, General, 28, 54, 56, 71. 

New Mexico, 165. 

New Orleans, 11, 17, 21. 

Nogales, 158. 

Norway, German ambitions in, 296. 

Nueve Leon, 35. 

Oaxaca, 3, 4, 10, 14, 62, 71, 103, 

135, 183. 
Obregon, Esquinral, 147. 
Ojinaga, 152. 
.Orizaba, 103, 183. 
Orozco, General Pascal, 24, 72, 

107-111, 113, 146. 
Ortega y Reyes, Delphina, see 

Diaz, Senora. 
Ortega, General, 6. 
O'Shaughnessy, Mr. 156. 
Otomi, The, 135. 

Pacheco, General, 152. 

Panama, 200. 

Panuco River, 21. 

Paris, 127-133, 216, 222-225. 

Parral, 109. 

Pearson, Sir Weetman, see Lord 

Cowdray. 
Perez, 4. 

Pershing, General, 243, 285. 
Polavieja, Marquis of, 89. 
Prairie, American Cruiser, 188. 
Prescott's " History of Mexico," 62. 
Progresso (Gunboat), 194. 
Puebla, 5, 6, 11, 39, 49, 103„ 104, 

131. 
Puerto Mexico, 197, 203. 

Quek6taro, 5. 



INDEX 



311 



Rasputin, 291. 

Reyes, General Bernardo, 34-36, 

53, 105, 111, 136, 137. 
Rio, Martinez del, 262. 
Rio Grande, The, 10, 11, 25, 65, 

71, 72, 152. 
Rogago, General, 152. 
Roosevelt, President, 175, 176, 

301. 
Rosner, Karl, 291. 
Russia, Education in, 27. 

Sal AS, General, 108, 

Saltillo, 149. 

San Antonio, 166. 

San Bias, 254. 

Sari Francisco, The (U.S.A.), 188. 

San Luis de Potosi, 109. 

Santa Anna, General, 4, 41. 

Santa In^s, Convent of, 5. 

Santander, 89. 

Santiago, 160-162. 

Santo Domingo, 200. 

Santo Domingo, Convent of, 4. 

Sckunner, Dr. 260. 

Silva, 109. 

Smuts, General, 166, 176, 233, 234. 

Soledad, 183, 190-192. 

Sonora, 33, 148, 149, 152, 166. 

Spring-Rice, Sir Cecil, 206. 

Strong, Sir Francis, 68. 

Strong, Lady, 68. 

Suarez, Senor Pino, 105, 107, 115, 

189. 
Swartzenfeldt, Baron Kracker von, 

238-240. 

Taft, President, 39, 57, 58, 05, 

72, 109, 110, 154. 
Tamaulipas, 109. 
Tampico, 21, 152, 172, 173, 180, 

181, 185, 186, 188, 191, 193, 196, 

197, 249, 250. 
Tecoac, 14. 



Teheria, 190, 192. 

Tenancingo, 112. 

Terrazas, General, 49. 

Texas, 165, 166. 

Thun, General Count, 6. 

Tierra Blanca, 183. 

Tlalpan, 136, 137. 

Tlaxcalans, The, 135. 

Toltecs, The, 135. 

Torreon, 109, 142, 149, 152, 154, 

159, 160, 162, 186. 
Tower, Sir Reginald, 122. 
Tula, 135. 
Tuxpam, 250. 
Tweedie, Commander Hugh, 179, 

182-184, 189, 191-193. 

Vasquez- Gomez, Francisco, 104, 
110. 

Vera Cruz, The, 194. 

Vera Cruz, 6, 11-13, 20, 21, 43, 80, 
81, 85, 105, 106, 109, 113, 114, 
125, 128, 134, 136, 151, 173, 174, 
179-183, 185, 197, 215, 249, 251, 
290. 

Victoria, 152. 

Villa, General Francisco, 24, 145, 
146, 152, 154, 168-170, 174, 179, 

181, 185, 187, 196, 200, 202, 207, 
209, 212-214, 242. 

Villa Union, 36. 

Washington, U.S.A. 17. 
Washington, George, 43. 
Wilhelm II., Kaiser, 42, 43, 116, 122, 

173, 177, 195, 235, 255-257, 260, 

267, 272-274, 284 el seq., 290, 

291, 300. 
Wilson, Mr. Henry L. 155. 
Wilson, President Woodrow, 148, 

154-158, 170, 174, 177, 179, 181, 

182, 198, 199, 206, 214, 228, 229, 
242, 245, 268, 270, 285. 



312 INDEX 



XoCHlCALCO, 62. Zacatecas, 148, 152. 

Zagaza, 205. 

Zapata, General Emiliano, 72, 106, 
YOKOI, ToKiwo, 268. 112, 147, 149, 209. 

Ypiranga, The (Hamburg- America Zapotec Tribes, The, 62, 135. 
Line), 197. Zaragossa, General, 188, 194. 

Yturbide, 165. Zimmermann, Herr, 238, 244-249, 

Yuan-Chi-jui, 94. 285. 

Yuan-shi-kai, 91-93. Zubaran, Rafael, 246, 247. 



Printed at Th9 Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey, 



311.77 



